
Qass. 
Book- 



* 



62d Congress) 
3d Session J 



HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES 



/Document 
\ No. 1483 



M.S. LlA Co^ij., lJ< i 

WILLIAM W. WEDEMEYER 

( Late a Representative from Michigan ) 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 

DELIVERED IN THE 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THE SENATE 

OF THE UNITED STATES 

SIXTY- SECOND CONGRESS 



7 



Proceedings in the House 
February 16, 1913 



Proceedings in the Senate 
February 22, 1913 



PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 
THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING 




WASHINGTON 
1914 







0. 01- :. 

NOV ;3 t3H 



I 



k 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Page. 

Proceedings in the House 5 

Prayer by Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D 5,8 

Memorial addresses by — 

Mr. Dodds, of Michigan 11 

Mr. Willis, of Ohio 14 

Mr. Foster, of Illinois 30 

Mr. McMorran, of Michigan 33 

Mr. Hammond, of Minnesota 36 

Mr. Hamilton, of Michigan 39 

Mr. Sloan, of Nebraska 45 

Mr. J. M. C. Smith, of Michigan 50 

Mr. Sweet, of Michigan 54 

Mr. Sharp, of Ohio 57 

^ Mr. Ainey, of Pennsylvania 61 

Mr. Samuel W. Smith, of Michigan 64 

Proceedings in the Senate ^- 73 

Prayer by Rev. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, D. D 76 

Memorial addresses by — 

Mr. Townsend, of Michigan . 79 

Mr. Jones, of Washington 86 

Mr. Ashurst, of Arizona 90 

Mr. Kern, of Indiana 94 

Mr. Smith, of Michigan 97 

Address by former Representative John J. Lentz, of Ohio, 

at memorial services held in Ann Arbor, Mich 66 



[3] 



I 




HON. WILUAWW WEDEMEYEH 



DEATH OF HON. WILLIAM W. WEDEMEYER 



Proceedings in the House of Representatives 

Friday, January 3, 1913. 
The House met at 12 o'clock noon. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D., offered the 
following prayer : 

Help us, O God, our Father, to realize that we are 
Thine, that nothing in life or death can separate us from 
Thee. It is Thou who hast made us and not we ourselves. 
Death comes all unbidden and touches the deeps of our 
hearts. Comfort, we beseech Thee, the families con- 
nected with this body into which the angel of death has 
so recently come, that they may look forward into the 
bright beyond without doubt or fear. 

Be with the family of the Member who is sorely 
afflicted; restore him, we pray Thee, to health and strength 
that he may pursue the useful walks of life. Keep us all 
and our dear ones close to Thee in the faith and hope of 
Thy ruling and overruling Providence. In the spirit of 
the Lord Christ. Amen. 

Mr. Hamilton of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, information 
has just been received, tlirough the War Department, of 
the death of Hon. William W. Wedemeyer by drowning. 
Mr. Wedemeyer was returning from the Canal Zone. 
Some time later I shall ask the House to set a time for 
paying tribute to the life, character, and public services 
of the deceased. Meanwhile I offer the following reso- 
lutions, which I send to the Clerk's desk. 



[5] 



Memorial Addresses : Representative Wedemeyek 

The Speaker. The Clerk will report the resolutions. 
The Clerk read as follows : 

House resolution 763 

Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of Hon. William W. Wedemeyer, late a Representative 
from the State of Michigan. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate this resolution to the 
Senate and transmit a copy thereof to the family of the deceased. 

The Speaker. The question is on agreeing to the reso- 
lutions. 

The resolutions were agreed to. 

Mr. Macon. Mr. Speaker, I move the adoption of the 
resolution which I send to the Clerk's desk. 

The Speaker. The Clerk will report the resolution. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

House resolution 764 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of 
the deceased Senator Jeff Davis and Representative William W. 
Wedemeyer the House do now adjourn. 

The Speaker. The question is on agreeing to the reso- 
lution. 

The resolution was agreed to; accordingly (at 1 o'clock 
and 27 minutes p. m.) the House adjourned until to- 
morrow, Saturday, January 4, 1913, at 12 o'clock noon. 



Saturday, January 11, 1913. 
Mr. Hamilton of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I ask unani- 
mous consent for the present consideration of the resolu- 
tion which I send to the Clerk's desk. 



[6] 



Proceedings in the House 



The Clerk read as follows: 

House resolution 772 

Resolved, That a committee of 15 Members of the House, with 
such Members of the Senate as may be joined, be appointed to 
attend memorial services for Hon. William W. Wedemeyer, late 
a Representative from the State of Michigan, to be held at Ann 
Arbor, Mich. 

Resolved, That the Sergeant at Arms of the House be authorized 
and directed to talie such steps as may be necessary for carrying 
out the provisions of this resolution, and that tlie necessary ex- 
penses in connection therewith be paid out of the contingent 
fund of the House. 

The Speaker. Is there objection to the present consid- 
eration of the resolution? 

There was no objection. 

The resolution was agreed to. 

Mr. Hamilton of Michigan. Now, Mr. Speaker, I send 
the following order to the Clerk's desk and ask for its 
immediate consideration. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Ordered, That Sunday, the 16th day of February, 1913, at 12 
o'clock, be set apart for addresses on the life, character, and 
public services of Hon. William W. Wedemeyer, late a Repre- 
sentative from the State of Michigan. 

The Speaker. Is there objection to the present consider- 
ation of the order? [After a pause.] The Chair hears 
none. 

The order was agreed to. 



Thursday, January 23. 1913. 
The Speaker laid before the House the names of the 
committee to attend the funeral exercises on Mr. Wede- 
meyer, of Michigan. 



[7] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Mr. Doremus, Mr. J. M. C. Smith, Mr. Hamilton of Michigan, 
Mr. Sweet, Mr. Samuel W. Smith, Mr. McMorran, Mr. Fordney, Mr. 
McLaughlin, Mr. Loud, Mr. Dodds, Mr. Kendall, Mr. Willis, Mr. 
Foster, Mr. Hammond, and Mr. Sharp. 



Sunday, February 16, 1913. 

The House met at 12 o'clock noon, and was called to 
order by Mr. Doremus as Speaker pro tempore. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D., offered 
the following prayer: 

Our God and our Father, our life and our hope, for in 
Thy keeping is the destiny of men. We gather here to- 
day in memory of men who by dint of industry and faith- 
ful service proved themselves worthy of the confidence 
reposed in them, and have passed on to the reward of 
the faithful. It is well thus to commemorate their service 
and record their history as an example to those who shall 
follow them. Strengthen our faith, encourage our hope, 
and inspire us to noble endeavors, that we may merit the 
confidence of our fellow men and Thy loving-kindness. 
Help us and their dear ones to say in all faith. Thy will be 
done. 

So long Thy power has blest us, sure it still 

Will lead us on 
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till 

The night is gone. 
And with the morn those angel faces smile 
Which we have loved long since, and lost awhile. 

In the spirit of Him who brought to light life and 
immortality. Amen. 

The Clerk began the reading of the Journal of the pro- 
ceedings of yesterday. 



[8] 



Proceedings in the House 



Mr. Hamilton of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I ask unani- 
mous consent that the reading of the Journal be dis- 
pensed with. 

The Speaker pro tempore. Is there objection? 

There was no objection. 

The Speaker pro tempore. The Clerk will report the 
first special order of the day. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

On motion of Mr. Hamilton, of Michigan, by unanimous con- 
sent, 

Ordered, That Sunday, February 16, 1913, at 12 o'clock ra., be 
set apart for addresses upon the life, character, and public serv- 
ices of Hon. William W. Wedemeyer, late a Representative from 
the State of Michigan. 

Mr. Hamilton of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I offer the fol- 
lowing resolution. 

The Speaker pro tempore. The Clerk will report the 
resolution. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

House resolution 840 

Resolved, That the business of the House be now suspended 
that opportunity may be given for tributes to the memory of 
Hon. William W. Wedemeyer, late a Member of the House from 
the State of Michigan. 

Resolved, That as a particular mark of respect to the memory 
of the deceased, and in recognition of his distinguished public 
career, the House, at the conclusion of the memorial exercises 
of the day, shall stand adjourned. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate. 

Resolved, That the Clerk send a copy of these resolutions to 
the family of the deceased. 

The resolution was agreed to. 



[9] 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Address of Mr. Dodds, of Michigan 

Mr. Speaker: We are here at this time to pay a last 
tribute of respect to our late friend and colleague, Wil- 
liam Walter Wedemeyer. It is a sad and solemn duty 
for us all, but for those of us who are from Michigan, his 
home State, it is especially so. We knew him so well 
and were so thoroughly interested in him and in his 
future that his untimely death means much to us indeed. 
Had we been asked, when we assembled here at the be- 
ginning of the present session, to prophesy as to the one 
of us who would be first called upon to lay down the 
burdens of earthly life and pass over to the great be- 
yond, I am sure that none would have named or had 
in mind the brother who has actually been taken from us. 
The 3'oungest of us all; a giant in strength and, seem- 
ingly, in power to endure; with conditions about him 
apparently the most pleasing and self-satisfying, surely 
" Wedie," as we were wont to call him, would have been 
the last one in our thoughts. But half of his life — as 
lives do go — was gone; and we were of a mind that years 
and years were yet to come to Mm in which, as in the 
past, his life would tell for good. But what we least 
expect most often comes; and now he is no more. " The 
bubble which seemed to have so much solidity has burst, 
and we again see that all below the sun is vanity." 

Mr. Wedemeyer obtained his education in the Uni- 
versity of Michigan, where he completed both the literary 
and the law courses, being well equipped when he left it 



[11] 



Memoriai. Addresses: Representatu-e Wedemeyer 



for the vocation in life in which he was to engage — the 
practice of the law. 

My acquaintance with him began some 16 3'ears ago, 
when he was but 23 years of age. This was during the 
first McKinley campaign, in the results of which he was 
much interested, and always after we were earnest friends. 
To know him was to become interested in him. It could 
easily be seen that he was one of those to whom the many 
talents had been given, and consequently much was ex- 
pected of him in return. He seemed to know this, and 
"expecting no indulgence from others, he showed none 
to himself." There was, therefore, much of realization 
as well as promise in the life so unexpectedly ended. 
Deputy railroad commissioner of his State before reach- 
ing the age of 25 years, consul to Georgetown, British 
Guiana, soon afterwards, and a Member of this great leg- 
islative body before reaching the age of 38 years mark 
him as a man in whom the people had much confidence. 
Also, besides his other professional work at the time of 
his death, and besides his work as a Member of Congress, 
he was national counselor for the American Insurance 
Union, a position of much responsibility. 

Those who really knew the esteemed brother whose 
loss we mourn know that he was no ordinary man. In 
all that goes to make the manly man— intelligence, 
morality, kindliness of heart— he was the peer of any. 

In politics he was a stanch Republican. Though always 
for progression, he was for progression within his party. 

He never pretended to be what he was not, but was 
always sincere, true, and natural. 

He was an honest man in thought, in purpose, and in 
deed, and sham and falsehood were by him abhorred. 

He was of a cheerful disposition and in a remarkable 
degree possessed the power to impart that cheerfulness 
to others. 

[12] 



Address of Mr. Dodds, of Michigan 



His work as a speaker in the McKinley campaign, be- 
fore referred to, first brought liim into prominence as a 
State orator and ranked him as such among our very 
best. Wherever he spoke he was admired both for what 
he said and how he said it, and he invariably left his 
hearers with a desire to hear more. Well informed, 
clear in speech, logical and eloquent, and with a most 
attractive personality, he had a singular power over the 
minds of men, and thus he grew in favor. 

He was a candidate for Congress in his district in the 
year 1898 and again in the year 1902, and each time 
lacked but a few votes of the number necessary to secure 
for him the desired nomination, the election after nomi- 
nation being regarded as certain. 

At the primary election held in 1910 he secured this 
nomination, and his election followed. That his service 
here was for so brief a period is greatly to be regretted. 
His fitness for the work was exceptional, and his life 
here would have continued to be a life of usefulness and 
one that would have brought him high distinction. But — 

Again a prince has fallen in the fight — 

The val'rous champion of the truth and right; 

Determined, honest, level-headed, just, 

Who broke no promise nor betrayed a trust! 

His genial face with courtly kindness beamed — 

By friends beloved, by all mankind esteemed. 

Peace to his manly soul and sweetest rest 

With that glad throng whom love of God has blest 1 



[13] 



Address of Mr. Willis, of Ohio 

Mr. Speaker : I can scarcely make it seem possible that 
our friend has gone away. I suppose 1 was associated 
with Mr. Wedemeye^ as intimately as any Member of this 
House. Not a day passed but what he was in my office 
or I was in his office. Not many votes were cast by either 
of us while he was here without our consulting together, 
and we have all become so accustomed to his presence 
amongst us that we can scarcely realize that he has gone 
away. 

In the few minutes that I speak I shall undertake some- 
thing that perhaps is unusual, perhaps out of place, but 
it seems to me there is no better way of judging of a man 
than by knowing something of his thoughts and some- 
thing of the books that he reads. It has been written, 
" As a man thinketh, so is he." Some one has said, " If 
you will show me what you read I will tell you what you 
are." 

It will be forever a fond recollection to me that many 
hours were spent by me with this strong, heroic soul in 
the reading of things that he liked and that I liked; and 
I am reminded just now of a little poem that he recited 
to me many and many a time, from the pen of James 
Whitcomb Riley, an old familiar poem, perhaps, which 
yet expresses the thought I have in mind just now. I 
can hear Mr. Wedemeyer's voice as he read this to me 
the first time: 

I can not say and I will not say 

That he is dead. He is just away I 

With a cheery smile and a wave of the hand 

He has wandered into an unknown land. 



[14] 



Address of Mr. Willis, of Ohio 



And left us dreaming hov,- very fair 
It needs must be, since he lingers there. 
And you — oh, you, who the wildest yearn 
For the old-time step and the glad return — 
Think of him faring on, as dear 
In the love of there as the love of here; 
***** 

Think of him still as the same, I say; 
He is not dead — he is just away! 

He read and recited that to me many times. It ex- 
presses the thought I have at this moment. I think I 
shall never be able to realize that Mr. Wedemeyer has 
done other than simply "gone away." His life became 
so mingled with my life that the fond recollection of it 
shall remain with me through time and eternity. 

My acquaintance with Mr. Wedemeyer did not extend 
over so many years. I met him first, I think, in the 
winter of 1908, although before that time he was well 
known in our State as a campaign orator and as a lec- 
turer. I think it was in the winter of 1908 that he came 
to Kenton, the county seat of Hardin County, in which 
I live, to address a great banquet of the Young Men's 
Republican Club. I became intimately acquainted with 
him from the beginning. I remember, after the banquet 
was over and the crowd had dispersed, that I went up 
to his room, and the great, big, jolly fellow sat down 
and we talked of our families, talked of politics, talked 
of our hopes, ambitions, and disappointments, and 
talked somewhat of literature. 

I remember that he inquired of me if I had ever read 
a little selection which he proceeded to recite with tre- 
mendous effect and deep pathos. I read it now because 
it expresses Mr. Wedemeyer's philosophy of life. He 
would not have us wrapped in deep sorrow; that was 
not his way of looking at things. He believed in taking 
things as they are and making the best of them and 

[15] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

doing what we can for people while they are on earth. 
I remember in our interchange of thought upon this sub- 
ject I recited to him this little stanza, which seemed to 
meet with his approval, and which I have since heard 
him recite many times: 

A rose to tlie living is more 

Than sumptuous wreaths to the dead; 

In filling love's infinite store, 

A rose to the living is more 

If graciously given before 

The hungering spirit has fled — 

A rose to the living is more 

Than sumptuous wreaths to the dead. 

It expresses less beautifully and completely the same 
thought as is expressed in the selection he quoted: 

Closed eyes can't see the white roses; 

Cold hands can't hold them, you know; 
Breath that is stilled can not gather 

The odors that sweet from them blow. 
Death with a peace beyond dreaming 

Its children of earth doth endow. 
Life is the time we can help them. 

So give them the flowers now! 

Here are the struggles and striving, 

Here are the cares and the tears; 
Now is the time to be smoothing 

The frowns and the furrows and fears. 
What to closed eyes are kind sayings? 

What to hushed heart is deep vow? 
Naught can avail after parting. 

So give them the flowers nowl 

Just a kind word or a greeting; 

Just a warm grasp or a smile — 
These are the flowers that will lighten 

The burdens for many a mile. 
After the journey is over 

What is the use of them; how 
Can they carry them who must be carried? 

Oh, give them the flowers now! 

[16] 



Address of Mr. Willis, of Ohio 



That was Mr. Wedemeyer's philosophy of life — to do 
good every day, to make somebody happy, to lift a burden 
here, to cheer some one with a glad jest or a happy smile 
or a generous deed. 

I may not speak at length of his services here in this 
body, and yet what little I shall say comes from the heart, 
because I think I knew pretty nearly what his positions 
were upon public questions, because, as I have said, we 
talked over most of the things that we would have occa- 
sion to act upon. I simply refer, in passing, to one or two 
of his speeches which I think were great speeches. 

Mr. Speaker, I have heard many splendid orators, but I 
have heard few men that had more power with a great 
audience than William W. Wedemeyer. There was a 
magnetism of personality, there was a charm of per- 
suasion of voice, there was a cogency of reasoning, of 
sound logic that marked the great orator. As I have sug- 
gested before, in Ohio he was well known, and whenever 
it was announced that Wedemeyer, of Michigan, was to 
address a meeting, the crowd was limited only by the 
capacity of the hall. 

That reputation which he had made as an orator, 
almost nation wide in its extent, was fully sustained by 
his services here. As I recall the first speech that he made 
in the House, it was a speech relative to the investigations 
that had been had concerning matters in the State Depart- 
ment. 1 know that Mr. Wedemeyer with his accustomed 
energy and attention to detail had spent days and nights 
and weeks in going into every detail of that case, and his 
heart was in it. While there was difference of opinion 
here in the House relative to the merits of the controversy, 
Mr. Wedemeyer felt that certain ofTicials of the State 
Department had been wrongly accused. He threw all the 
weight of liis mighty soul into the fight and made a great 



11358°— 14 2 [17] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

speech, which all will remember who were fortunate 
enough to hear it. 

He was very active in the discussion that resulted ulti- 
mately in the admission of Arizona and New Mexico as 
States into the Union, and I think I violate no rules as to 
secrecy relative to the proceedings in the committee when 
I say that no man on the Committee on the Territories, 
with the possible exception of the chairman, did as much 
to bring Arizona and New Mexico into the Union as did 
Mr. Wedemeyer. Constant in his attendance upon the 
sessions of the committee, studying all the details, famil- 
iarizing himself with the arguments, he was a power in 
favor of the admission of those two new States. But the 
thing in which he took the greatest delight was that group 
of questions that we call the Alaska questions. Mr. 
Wedemeyer was thoroughly familiar with the situation 
in Alaska. He had visited the place, had talked with the 
people, face to face; he had studied the question at first 
hand, and he was enthusiastic in his belief as to the pos- 
sibilities for the future in that great undeveloped empire. 
If Members were not fortunate enough to be in the House 
the day he made his speech on the Alaska government 
bill, I dare say they would be well repaid if they would 
hunt out the speech and read it now. It was a mighty 
effort, and it shows Mr. Wedemeyer's breadth of view, 
his strong grasp of public questions. 

It is not necessary to call the attention of Members here 
to the fact, because we all know it. But one thing that I 
wish to call particular attention to and make a part of 
this solemn record that we are making up as to his serv- 
ices is his devotion to his duties. I have never seen in any 
legislative body a man who gave more careful, constant 
attention to the public business than did Mr. Wedemeyer, 
even when he was called away, as he was very infre- 
quently. When he had to be out of the city, through his 



[18] 



Address of Mr. Willis, of Ohio 



capable and efficient secretary, or through some of his 
friends in the House, he kept in constant touch with 
the public business. He knew exactly what was going 
on, and always left instructions, if anything important 
came up, to wire him and he would be here, no matter 
what the cost. He gave constant attention to his work. 
We have seen liim sitting at his desk here, through the 
long day, always at work — always at work in the interest 
of the people, in the interest of his constituents. I have 
left my office many a time at 10 or 11 o'clock at night, 
and going by Mr. Wedemeyer's office would find him at 
work, studying some public question. I dare say, Mr. 
Speaker, there has never been a man who served in this 
House who gave his life more completely to the service 
of the people who elected him than did Mr. Wedemeyer. 

I have a little memento here to which I shall only 
refer. I have show'n it to some of the Members of the 
Michigan delegation. It is just a little note illustrative 
of Mr. Wedemeyer's intense devotion to his people and 
of his extreme care as to details. He gave it to me on the 
eve of his departure from this city forever, saying, as he 
went away, that it was possible a certain bill in which his 
people were vitally interested might come up while he 
would be away. He did not think it would. He thought 
he would be back before the bill would be considered, 
but he handed me this written memorandum, requesting 
me to attend to the matter if the bill came up. I shall 
keep this memorandum until his son is old enough to un- 
derstand what it means, and then I shall give it to George 
as a token of the attention of his father to the public busi- 
ness, his absolutely unflagging devotion to the interests 
of the people who elected him. 

Another thing to which I wish to refer in passing is 
the profound interest which Mr. Wedemeyer had in the 
Latin-American countries. Those of you who were fortu- 



[19] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

nate in having an intimate acquaintance with him know 
that he had studied that situation and that great question 
thoroughly. As you are aware, for a time he was United 
States consul to a South American country, and was en- 
tirely familiar with that group of questions connected 
with the Latin-American situation. 

Not only that, but Mr. Wedemeyer studied and under- 
stood world politics. As you know, he was of German 
descent. He spoke the German language as fluently as 
he spoke English. He had traveled a great deal. He 
was perfectly familiar with Germany, with Austria, with 
France, as I have stated before, with Alaska, with Cen- 
tral America, with Mexico, and with South America. He 
understood the great problems of world politics, and he 
had a grasp of those problems not possessed by many 
men of his time. 

I should like to speak a word of his personal character- 
istics. The one I think of first was his intense, unyielding, 
absolutely profound patriotism, in the widest and deepest 
and best sense. As his colleague, the gentleman from 
Michigan [Mr. Dodds], has said, Mr. Wedemeyer was 
truly progressive in every thought, in every act. His 
sympathy was with humanity. He was for the things 
that benefited the great mass of the people, and it was 
perfectly natural that it should be so, because he came 
from the ranks of the common people. By his illustrious 
living he has given an example to the youth of his State 
of the possibilities of citizenship in this great Republic. 

Mr. Wedemeyer made himself what he was. He worked 
his own way through high school, college, and university. 
His sympathies were with the common people. How 
often have I discussed with him, how often have I heard 
his eloquent voice ring out in behalf of the folks back on 
the farm, the folks who live in the little villages. He 
neither knew nor cared much about the requirements of 

[20] 



Address of Mr. Willis, of Ohio 



high society or about the blandishments of wealth; but 
that great, strong, patriotic soul did know to its depths 
the life of the common people, and there never was a 
thought, there never was an act, while he was a Member 
of this House, that was not in the interest of true progress 
in absolutely the best sense. 

I have said he was patriotic. Perhaps, carrying out the 
thought I suggested at the beginning, I can best illustrate 
that by reading another selection, from the pen of Moses 
Owen, which he frequently read to me from this very 
book. It is one from which he frequently read. Here are 
a couple of stanzas that I have heard him recite with 
tremendous, soul-stirring power. They tell the story of 
the battle flags in the State capitol at Augusta, Me.: 

Nothing but flags, but simple flags, 

Tattered and torn and hanging in rags; 

And we walk beneath them with careless tread, 

Nor think of the hosts of the mighty dead 

That have marched beneath them in days gone by, 

With a burning cheek and a kindling eye. 

And have bathed their folds with their life's young tide. 

And dying, blessed them, and blessing, died. 

Nothing but flags; yet, methinks, at night 
They tell each other their tale of flght; 
And dim specters come, and their thin arms twine 
Round each standard torn, as they stand in line. 
As the word is given — they charge, they form. 
And the dim hall rings with the battle's storm; 
And once again, through smoke and strife, 
These colors lead to a nation's life. 

Mr. Wedemeyer was intensely patriotic, and he was 
never happier than when he was doing something for an 
old soldier — getting some adjustment made in his pension 
papers or something of that kind. He was the true friend 
of him who bore the burden of battle and of his widow 



[21] 



Memorial Addresses : Representative Wedemeyer 

and his orphans. Another characteristic was his love 
for home, for wife and children — his firm grounding in 
those things which in the life of this Republic or in the 
life of any nation are absolutely fundamental. This man 
proudly wore the stainless flower of his unsullied man- 
hood. There was never a word nor a thought nor an act 
but what was in harmony with the highest devotion to 
the responsibilities and sacrcdness of his home. 

How often have we seen him coming here, or into our 
offices, all aglow, his face wrealhed in smiles; he would 
pull out of his pocket a letter scrawled in those unintel- 
ligible lines that only the baby fingers know how to make; 
unintelligible to others, and yet he seemed to understand 
them all. Here was an undecipherable message from 
little Josephine, or here was a loving note from Mary, or 
here was a letter from George, telling of some of his 
experiences in school. Mr. Wedemeyer carried those 
letters around, doted upon them, read them to his friends. 
He believed, 1 say, in those things that are finest and 
sweetest and most permanent and enduring in this life. 

He was a man that thought an almost infinite amount 
of wife and children. His devotion to them was without 
flaw or blemish. Perhaps that quality of his character 
could be illustrated again by something in literature. I 
remember well the circumstance under which he called 
mj' attention to this that I am about to read. 1 had never 
seen it before. He had invited me to dinner at his hotel, 
and after dinner he invited me up to his room to read 
me something. I went with him and he read this from 
McCants. It was the way Mr. Wedemeyer spent the odd 
moments, in reading things like this. I am reading these 
paragraphs, Mr. Speaker, because I think they show the 
character of the man in whose honor we have met to-day. 
A man who puts in his time reading this kind of litera- 
ture and thinking this kind of thoughts is not likely to 

[22] 



Address of Mr. Willis, of Ohio 



go far wrong. " Wedie," as we loved to call him, was 
tender and sympathetic and home-loving. He understood 
that the family life was the enduring foundation of the 
Nation. Sad, sweet paragraphs like these I am about to 
read appealed to him, and as he read them to me in voice 
eloquently rich I was deeply moved : 

A little winding railway in a soutliern county connects two 
widely parallel systems known as the C. & G. The trains are 
small and meek when compared with the long aggregations of 
cars with which they connect at G. 

But to the old man who sal to-day in one of the cramped, un- 
comfortable coaches defects were not apparent. For 40 years 
little cars like these had passed his door. Along this same road 
he and Mary had taken their wedding trip. How proud he was 
of her when they returned, and he had taken her home, where 
his father and his father's father had lived before him. There 
they had lived and labored together, going on Saturdays to the 
village and on Sundays to the little church, and there Tom had 
been born. 

It seemed hard to realize that all this was long ago, for so 
much had happened since then. No lusty boy would come rush- 
ing to meet him to-day; the rocking chair where she used to sit 
would be very still. The old man choked a little and wiped his 
eyes with his cotton handkerchief. 

He had not known what all this meant to him until he had left 
it. He had been lonely, and Tom had persuaded him to go live 
with him. But it was all so strange in this new place, so little like 
he had pictured it. He said nothing. They were kind to him and 
he must not seem ungrateful. He would not admit, even to him- 
self, that he wished to go back, but he grew so silent, white, and 
still that his son watching his wistful face was touched. 

"Father," said he, "am I not your son? Tell me." And the 
old man answered humbly, " Tom, I am old and getting childish, 
but I want to go back. I've never lived anywhere else before 
and — and she's there, Tom." 

So to-day he was going home; back to the hills and trees; 
back to his old house and graves; back where she had left him 
to wait until she had called him; and the journey was almost 
done. 

[23] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

The sunshine crept across the car and the noise of voices 
grew lower and lower. Somehow it was evening and he was 
coming home down the long lanes between the fields. Over the 
hills came the tinkle of bells as the cattle came home to the milk- 
ing; here, running to meet him, was little Tom, the red stains of 
berries still marking his face and fingers; and there by the gate, 
the lovelight as strong in her eyes as on the day they were mar- 
ried, stood Mary, the wife of his youth. 

" I am late," he said, " and tired." 

" Come," she said, " you can rest now; it is only a step more." 
And — a long, quavering sigh of relief — and — he was at home. 
The little rough train went jolting along and reached his station 
at last. But when the conductor shook him he did not answer. 

On another occasion when I was with Mr. Wedemeyer 
in his room he read these fugitive lines from some author 
whose name I have forgotten : 

The poem was Eugene Field's Little Boy Blue, and at the very 
first lines of it the old lady became all attention: 

" The little toy dog is covered with dust. 
But sturdy and staunch it stands; 
And the little tin soldier is covered with rust. 
And his musket molds in his hands." 

Very slowly, as she read on, the tears came into her eyes and 
dimmed the spectacles so that she could scarcely see the lines of 
the second verse: 

" ' Now, don't you go till I come,' he said, 

'And don't you make any noise 1 ' 
Then, toddling off to his trundle bed, 

He dreamed of his pretty toys. 
And as he was dreaming, an angel song 

Awakened our little boy. 
Oh, the years are many " — 

Yes; they are many! It was more than half a century ago now. 
The paper dropped from the old lady's hand and rustled to the 
floor. There was no use in trying to read any more, for her 
thought had flown away now to the time when she had had just 
such a Little Boy Blue as that. Since then she had had lots of 



[24] 



Address of Mr. Willis, of Ohio 



other children. Even now, as she sat there in the twilight, she 
could hear the shouts of her grandchildren at play not far away, 
but little Geordie had been her flrst-born, and somehow the others 
were different, and nobody knew just how but herself. She had 
daughters to console her in her widowhood, and when her mar- 
ried daughter had died her children had been left. But with 
little Geordie it was different. They only knew of him by the 
little headstone in the graveyard; but to her — why, after reading 
that little poem it seemed as though it were only yesterday that 
he was toddling along beside her, rosy and bright and full of fun. 
And he used to say just those things — she remembered. 

" Why, mother," said her daughter as she came in, " you've 
been crying! What's the matter?" 

" It was nothing, dear," answered the old lady as she wiped her 
eyes. " I was reading, you know, and it upset me a little. It was 
only a bit of newspaper verse." 

Mr. Speaker, I believe what I said in the beginning, that 
if you know what a man reads and thinks you know what 
he is. This man in this great city, with all its attractions, 
amusements, entertainments, allurements, and blandish- 
ments, in the odd moments of his time read this kind of 
literature. He believed in the home and the things asso- 
ciated with it that are the finest and tenderest and fairest. 

Another thing I should call attention to was his unfail- 
ing friendliness and sympathy. Mr. Wedemeyer knew 
every Member in this House before he had been here two 
weeks. He made friends; he could not help it. The ex- 
pression of his countenance was a benediction; you all 
knew him, and you knew him before he had been here 
many days. He was friendly with everybody, and he took 
an interest in the things in which his friends were inter- 
ested. I can bear testimony to that through the many 
conversations that we had. The contest in which I was 
engaged, my chances for reelection, appeared to interest 
him even more than his own affairs. William W. Wede- 
meyer was one of the most unselfish men I have known 
in public life. 

[25] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

Another characteristic was his unfailing good humor, 
his ability to see the funny side of things. It was like a 
burst of sunshine when he came to my room, always with 
a smile, and he could tell a funny story, not a vulgar 
story. I knew the man intimately for more than four 
years — and I think I was close to him; I am sure he was 
close to me — and in all the hours of our conversation 
here and elsewhere I never heard him tell a story that 
could not be told in the most polite company. 

But, as I say, he saw the funny side, and he was a 
splendid story-teller. One moment he would have an 
audience convulsed with laughter; the next sobered with 
his sound logic and beautiful diction. That was one of 
the qualities of his character that it seemed to me stood 
out prominently. 

Another was his courage. There come occasions in this 
House, Mr. Speaker, as we perfectly well know, there 
come votes wliich it would be convenient to avoid. These 
same things came to him, but there was nothing of the 
shirk about him; he always stayed here and did his duty; 
he never dodged a vote; he never evaded a responsibility. 
He was a man of courage, a man of the highest moral 
character, a man of the most abstemious habits, never 
under any circumstances using intoxicating liquors or 
tobacco in any form, and a man of absolutely unflinching 
honesty; honest with himself, honest with liis fellow man, 
honest with his counti-y, he typified all that is best in 
American life. 

On another occasion Mr. Wedemeyer invited me to come 
to his room. I accompanied him, as I had done many 
times before. ' He said, " I have found sometliing else I 
want to read to you. It expresses a profound pliilosophy 
and my own belief." Then he read these words. It is a 
statement made by Victor Hugo on the question as to 



[26] 



\ 



Address of Mr. Willis, of Ohio 



whether we shall live again. Here is what Mr. Wedemeyer 
read to me: 

I feel in myself the future life. I am like a forest once cut 
down; the new shoots are stronger and livelier than ever. I am 
rising, I know, toward the sky. The sunshine is on my head. The 
earth gives me its generous sap, but heaven lights me with the 
reflection of unknown worlds. 

You say the soul is nothing but the resultant of the bodily 
powers. Why, then, is my soul more luminous when my bodily 
powers begin to fail? Winter is on my head, but eternal spring 
is in my heart. I breathe at this hour the fragrance of the lilacs, 
the violets, and the roses as at 20 years. The nearer I approach 
the end the plainer I hear around me the immortal symphonies 
of the worlds which invite me. It is marvelous, yet simple. It 
is a fairy tale and it is history. 

For half a century I have been writing my thoughts in prose 
and in verse; history, philosophy, drama, romance, tradition, 
satire, ode, and song, I have tried all. But I feel I have not said 
the thousandth part of what is in me. When I go down to the 
grave I can say like many others, " I have finished my day's 
work." But I can not say, " I have finished my life." My day's 
work will begin again the next morning. The tomb is not a 
blind alley; it is a thoroughfare. It closes on the twilight; it 
opens on the dawn. 

That was Mr. Wedemeyer's belief. There is one other 
selection that he read to me, or rather recited, because 
he was familiar with it, that expresses the same thought. 
He recited these verses with great depth of feeling: 

Sunset and evening star. 

And one clear call for mel 
And may there be no moaning of the bar. 

When I put out to sea. 

But such a tide as moving seems asleep. 

Too full for sound and foam. 
When that which drew from out the boundless deep 

Turns again home. 



[27] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

Twilight and evening bell, 

And after that the dark! 
And may there be no sadness of farewell. 

When I embark; 

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place 

The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my Pilot face to face 

When I have erost the bar. 

I last saw Mr. Wedemeyer the night he left this city, 
just before the holidays. We ate the evening meal to- 
gether, and the conversation was cheerful and pleasant. 
He was happy in the thought that he was soon to be at 
home with wife and children, and the main topic of con- 
versation as we sat together was the family, the wife, the 
little children. There was somewhat of conversation con- 
cerning the trip he was proposing to make to the Isthmus. 
He was collecting some information for an address he 
expected to make in the House on the Latin-American 
situation and the Isthmian Canal. We had a very pleas- 
ant hour together, and I bade him good-by yonder at the 
gate at the Union Station. With a wave of his hand he 
went away. That was the last Ume I saw my friend. 

Worn with the worry and trial of a fierce political con- 
test, he sought a season of rest in the Latin-American 
countries he loved so well. But it was not so to be. The 
strong bow had been bent to breaking. He was given 
every attention at the hands of loving colleagues with 
him, but the spirit was broken and the body weak. As at 
the eventide he paced the deck and gazed upon the tropic 
seas and looked up into the beautiful, mysterious, starlit 
southern skies, the fugitive thoughts of his fevered brain 
were of home and wife and children and how they might 
best be provided for. Let us believe that as he looked 
into the skies he read in the unspoken language of the 



[28] 



Address of Mr. Willis, of Ohio 



stars a mystic meaning which only the parting soul ready 
to meet its Maker may know. Then in a moment the 
wearj' soul was at rest, and our friend, ready and without 
a tremor, met his Pilot face to face — that same good Pilot 
who said: 

I am the resurrection and the life. He that believelh in Me, 
though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth 
and believeth in Me shall never die. 



[29] 



Address of Mr. Foster, of Illinois 

Mr. Speaker: When the word came that Mr. Wede- 
MEYER was dead every Member of the House was shocked. 
The people of the district he represented were appalled 
at the sad ending of this distinguished man. His service 
here was not of long duration, but short as it was he 
proved himself to be a valuable Member. He was always 
attentive to his public duties, endeavoring always to so 
act that he might give that honest service to the people 
he so well represented and to the country at large. His 
speeches in the House showed that he thoroughly studied 
the questions he discussed, and were always of a high 
order, giving real information to the Members on this 
floor. His beginning in life was an humble one. His 
parents were of that honest, industrious German nation- 
ality. When young he learned that in this life what was 
worth having must be gotten only by hard work, and he 
did not desire anything unless it came to him in an honest 
way. As a young man he set out to secure an education 
that he might be fitted in life so as to have an equal chance 
with others. He studied law, and began the practice of 
his chosen profession in his native city, and always kept 
in mind the lesson taught by the law that justice should 
be accorded to all men, whatever their station in life 
might be, and advocated the principle of equal justice to 
all. His actions were always open and fair. He detested 
deceit, and had no patience with those who would practice 
it. Kind and courteous at all times and tolerant of the 
difference in opinion with those with whom he came in 
contact, he tried in a kindly way to show by argument 
that his views were right. He did not frequently take part 



[30] 



Address of Mr. Foster, of Illinois 



in debate, but his speeches on the admission of the Ter- 
ritories of Arizona and New Mexico into tlie Union as 
States and the bill to give a Territorial form of govern- 
ment to Alaska showed that he was master of his subject 
and that he was a firm believer in the right of the people 
to rule and govern themselves, and not that a few should 
say how the great majority should be controlled. It was 
my fortune to attend the memorial exercises held at Ann 
Arbor on the 26th day of last January, and it seemed to 
me there was universal mourning over the death of this 
good man, and those in all walks in life came out to the 
service to do honor to his memory. It is unfortunate that 
one so young and who could be so useful in life should 
be taken away so early, yet to Him above must we look 
for a reason of it all, wliich we can not now understand. 
To his bereaved wife and children we can offer but little 
in the way of consolation, but can only point to the life 
beyond the grave, which we have faith that he now enjoys. 
If we believed that death ends all, then, indeed, would 
the going away of one of our friends be sad; but we be- 
lieve that " in our Father's house are many mansions and 
that He goeth to prepare a place for us." This life at best 
is not long, yet there arc those who accomplish much in 
the short time they stay here. Our departed colleague 
performed his part well. God in His fullness of love, I 
have no doubt, has taken his spirit to Himself and he is 
now at rest in that place where neither sorrow nor death 
ever comes. Let us remember it is not always the best 
to say of those who are gone that they lived long in the 
world, but better to say they lived well. We think of our 
friends when they die that they are gone forever, but they 
have only gone a little while before us and we will soon 
follow. May it be said of us we lived faithful to the duty 
imposed on us. We kept the faith and made a good fight. 
It does not matter so much to us how we die, but it is of 



[31] 



Memorial Addresses : Representative Wedemeyer 

great concern to us all how we live. Sometimes we are 
apt to wonder why it is that our friends should be takeo 
away when it seems they have so much to live for and 
there seems to be so much for them to do. But God moves 
in a mysterious way — and yet let us not forget we live in 
a natural world, subject to all the trials and troubles of 
mind and body. Of all the monuments in the beautiful 
Arlington there are none more fully signifying service and 
what one can do and how little it matters to our bodies 
after we are gone than the one erected to those whose 
bones were gathered on the battle field and were uniden- 
tified. Yet they performed their part in the world and 
went down to death for the cause in which they believed. 
Though their names are unknown here, yet I have no 
doubt their good deeds are recorded above. This should 
teach us the lesson that it matters but little to us after 
we are gone whether we have the finest of marble shafts 
erected to our memorj' or are buried in an unknown 
grave, but that our friends may have the consolation 
that we did our part in the world while we lived. Our 
colleague lived a good, honorable, and useful life. His 
private life was clean and above reproach. In his family 
he was a kind husband and a loving father. William W. 
Wedemeyer is not dead — he has just gone before. He is 
waiting on the other side of the river of death. Some day 
in the bright sunshine of the morning we shall see him. 



[32] 



Address of Mr. McMorran, of Michigan 

Mr. Speaker: One of the sad events of my 10 years in 
public life occurs to-day, when I feel called upon to pay 
tribute to one of the youngest Members of our Michigan 
delegation, William W. Wedemeyer, who succeeded our 
Hon. Charles E. Townsend on his election to the Senate, 
and I think the sentiment of the entire Michigan delega- 
tion was that Mr. Wedemeyer was a worthy successor to 
Mr. Townsend, and that the second district of Michigan 
had every reason to be proud of him as his successor. 

When he came upon the floor of the House, with his 
splendid physique, his commanding position, and his 
genial manner, he won laurels with all those with whom 
he came in contact, and every Member in speaking of 
Wedemeyer spoke of him in the highest terms and as a 
young man who would make his mark in the House. He 
was appointed on some of the most important committees 
in the House, especially the Committee on Territories, and 
to him and his associates of that committee were com- 
mitted the duty of perfecting legislation for Alaska, and 
his report upon that subject was of a brilliant character 
and demonstrated to his colleagues that he had made his 
mark as a legislator. His arguments were forcible and 
clear in behalf of legislation for that Territory. 

William W. Wedemeyer was a fair illustration of the 
opportunities offered to young men with perseverance 
and ability in this great Republic. In his early manhood 
it is said of him that ho worked his own way through the 
high school and also through the University of Michigan. 
In Michigan he was looked upon as one of the coming 
men of our State. 

11358°— 14 3 [33] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

He had a great reputation as a public speaker and was 
in great demand. As a campaigner he was not excelled 
bj' any of the Michigan men. He also had a great ambi- 
tion to represent his district in Congress, and when he 
was elected with a large majority, 1 think no young man 
ever felt more proud of his promotion than did Wede- 
meyer. 

In talking with him just before the campaign of 1912 
I saw that he felt somewhat uneasy and was quite nerv- 
ous over the possible results of the election. He said 
to me on difl'erent occasions that he felt that his district 
was largely "progressive," and just what the outcome 
would be he was unable to say. He felt ambitious to be 
returned, and after the campaign was over and defeat 
faced him, on his arrival at Washington I met him on 
different occasions and he seemed to be very much de- 
pressed, especially so just before he started for Panama. 
At that time he came to me and began deploring his de- 
feat and could not understand it after all the hard work 
he had put in, and I saw that he was uneasy and in a 
moody condition. 1 endeavored to cheer him up by say- 
ing to him that if 1 had his ability, his wonderful physique, 
his ambition, and his profession, 1 should feel grateful to 
my district that they had relegated me to private life, but 
I saw I had made no impression upon him, and when I 
saw the account of his trip to Panama it seemed to me 
that he must have been out of his mind at times, as he 
had every reason to look forward with pleasure to his 
future life. He had a wife and three little children, who 
I know were very dear to him; his wife especially was 
all wrapped up in the future of their three children. He 
had a nice little home at Ann Arbor, was respected by 
his community, and that he should have thought it neces- 
sary to end his life in the way he did, leaving the respon- 
sibility upon his wife for the bringing up of that little 

[34] 



Address of Mr. McMorran, of Michigan 

family, leads me to think that he could not have been in 
his right mind. 

I had hoped that our Michigan delegation during my 
career might not be broken by death, and when Wede- 
MEYER came amongst us I think the delegation felt proud 
of his association and little thought that his life was to 
end at so early a period, and we can only hope in crossing 
that great river to the great beyond that he has gone to 
a more fitting scene than we have to-day on earth. 



[35] 



Address of Mr. Hammond, of Minnesota 

Mr. Speaker: William W. Wedemeyer was born near 
the city of Ann Arbor, Mich., of humble parentage. He 
went to school in the neighborhood of his home. He at- 
tended the great university in the city of Ann Arbor and 
worked his way through. He began the practice of his 
profession in the same city, and became a respected and 
eminent citizen of that community. He represented the 
district in which that city is located in the United States 
Congress. In childhood, youth, and later life he was 
identified with that part of his State. 

It was my fortune to attend the memorial services held 
in the citj' of Ann Arbor. Never have I seen a greater 
genuine tribute paid to any man than was paid to our 
colleague on that day. Not only were the most distin- 
guished men of the State present, but a great concourse 
of people, made up of those who knew the boy and knew 
the man. 

I have heard it very often said by young men starting 
out in life, " I feel that I can not do quite so well here at 
home. I would like to go to some other place to make 
my way." Not so with Wedemeyer. He stayed with 
those who knew him from his infancy, and no word of 
mine, and no other word that may be spoken, can tell a 
better story of the worth of the man than the simple 
statement that those who knew him best loved and ad- 
mired him most. 

I was on the boat going to Panama that carried Mr. 
Wedemeyer there. I did not know him very well prior to 
that trip. I had met him perhaps half a dozen times. Of 
course, liis mind was then affected, but apparently there 



[36] 



Address of Mr. Hammond, of Minnesota 

are no two cases of mental disease that are just alike. 
He could speak of Ins delusions logically and reasonably. 
That he had delusions there is no doubt, but much of the 
time his mind was clear. During the trip to the Isthmus 
I learned much of the man. I should say that Mr. Wede- 
MEYER was one of the most ambitious men I have ever 
met. He was anxious to retain his seat in Congress. The 
loss of it was a great disappointment. He was anxious 
to play a part in public life, but he desired to make a 
record embellished by valuable service to the people he 
represented. He wanted to make a good record. He was 
ambitious to serve his country well. Ambition is too 
often allied with selfishness; but when a really ambitious 
man is unselfish and desires to serve others and be of use 
to them, the possibilities of liis public service are almost 
infinite. 

Shortly after we left New York Harbor I went to Mr. 
Wedemeyer's room with him, and he showed me there a 
photograph of his wife and his children, and he spoke of 
them in words of pride and love. It seemed that his 
thoughts were centered upon two things: First, his family 
and what might come to them in case anything should 
happen to him; second, the blow to his prospects in 
having his public career checked. He brooded upon 
what he deemed his misfortune. Indeed, his greatest 
delusion was, as my friend [Mr. McMorran] has said, the 
belief that he could not be a great man, an able man, 
and a strong man out of public life. He felt that too 
much had been taken from him. He desired to stay in 
public life, because he knew that he could be of service 
to his country, because he knew he could bring honor 
upon himself and happiness to his family. In all things 
the family seemed to come first. He knew that his mind 
was diseased. He believed that it was irreparably injured. 
He thought he would never be a well and strong man 

L37] 



Memoriai, Addresses : Representative Wedemeyer 

again. Cherished ambitions gone, his mental strength 
failing, he feared he would be a burden to his loved ones 
instead of a help to them. Disappointed, grieving, sor- 
rowing, another great quality of the man exhibited itself. 
I said he was ambitious. He was unselfish as well. He 
cared not what became of him if no others suffered. He 
could not bear to live to do no good for others and to be 
of no help to his family. 

In the twilight of an early evening these thoughts came 
upon him. He looked at the bright stars above, at the 
black waters below, and, like a brave and courageous 
soldier, he went to a soldier's death. 



[38] 



Address of Mr. Hamilton, of Michigan 

Mr. Speaker: On the night of January 2, 1913, word was 
flashed back to land from the steamship Panama, bound 
northward from Colon, of the death of William W. 
Wedemeyer by drowning. 

The tangled thread of life which his troubled mind had 
been picking at for many feverish days and nights was 
ended and the problem " to be or not to be " was solved. 

At the meridian of his physical and mental powers 
some lesion somewhere, some rift in the thin partition 
between the normal and the abnormal, had let in strange, 
insistent voices, urging him out into the unknown. 

Then night settled down upon the sea and the ship with 
its little company of passengers and crew, with their little 
artificial social distinctions and their little plans for per- 
manence, went on its way; but the soul of Wedemeyer 
had gone out into the illimitable spaces of eternit}% on 
its way to the God who gave it, in the region where " there 
shall be no night " and where " they need no candle, 
neither light of sun, for the Lord God giveth them light." 

From time immemorial life has been compared to a 
voyage on which all set out with high hopes of treasure 
and renown, and some drop anchor in the lotus eaters' 
changeless land of rest and nothingness, and some are 
wrecked upon uncharted rocks, and some are lured to 
death by false lights; and some, gray with experience, 
battered by storms and disciplined by danger, with furled 
sails, come at last into the final port, where, whether only 
a faithful light in a cottage window awaits them or the 
boom of welcoming cannon greets them, the voyage is 



[39] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

over and the cargo, whether of gold or " sand for Nero's 
circuses," is discharged. 

Wedemeyer, though young, had fared well and fared 
far, and early in life had learned to be his own pilot. 

Without money and without backing he had gained a 
collegiate education and graduated from both the literary 
and law departments of the University of Michigan by 
dint of sheer hard work. 

He spoke English and German with equal fluency and 
had read deeply in the literature of both languages. 

His mind had been disciplined by scholastic training 
and by a postgraduate course in the practice of law and 
the school of politics. 

He had been in turn commissioner of schools for his 
home county, deputy railroad commissioner of Michigan, 
consul at Georgetown, British Guiana, for a short time. 
Member of Congress for one term, and had been defeated 
by a narrow majoritj' in the election of 1912. 

His father and mother had come from Germany to the 
better opportunities of America, and their son illustrated 
in his own career what an American boy, endowed with 
energy and high ideals, can accomplish here, and his 
career gave his name significance. 

Names are useful to identify us as items in the census 
list, but a name means little except as some one has given 
it character. 

If you pick out a man in a crowd and ask who he is you 
are told his name, but that means little more than a 
means of arbitrary identification, except as the man him- 
self has made lais name mean something, and it means 
less when he is labeled bj* inheritance with a name of 
which he is unworthy. 

Whether he realizes it or not, every man is giving his 
name a meaning every day by what he does and by what 
he says, confused though the meaning may be between 



[40] 



Address of Mr. Hamilton, of Michigan 

what others take him for and what he himself guesses he 
may be. So names pass into histon,' and become syno- 
nyms of patriotism, heroism, war, or craft. 

The name Wedemeyer stands to us who know for 6 
feet of physical manhood, illuminated by a character for 
honesty, courage, perseverance, steadiness, and sobriety, 
trained by study and research, warmed by a genial humor, 
and inspired by love for his family. 

But, in a deeper sense, like Schopenhauer, we question 
in vain who we are; and after all the arguments for cen- 
turies of " doctors and saints " and scientists and philos- 
ophers " about it and about," we " come out by the same 
door wherein we went," and the conclusion of Paul con- 
denses it all into a sentence, " If Christ be not risen from 
the dead, then is your faith vain." 

Andrew D. White quotes Bismarck as saying of his 
early life: 

Many an hour did I spend in hopeless despondency, believing 
that my own and other people's existence was aimless and useless, 
perhaps only an accidental emanation of creation, arising and dis- 
appearing as dust from rolling wheels. 

But if we gain courage by believing that we arc not 
here by accident — that creation is not all a curious coinci- 
dence — if we gain courage and self-respect by believing 
that we are here by design of some supreme intelligence 
which cares, then the ancient questions come back to 
generation after generation — 

Why must tragedies like this come upon us? 

Why should fears and sorrows and temptations and 
criminal impulses crouch and lie in ambush like beasts 
of prey, not only in the human brain but all along the 
way of life? 

Why the prodigality and the waste of life? 



[41] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

Why the brevity of life — the swift, short interval be- 
tween our coming and departure — between the beginning 
of aspiration and the oblivion that closes over it? 

Why, in this brief interval, do some, like motes, dance 
in the sunlight and others strive always in the shadows? 

And why are talents, wealth, and power distributed un- 
equally? 

And the wisdom of the ages, speculating about things 
the knowledge of which is denied us, answers that eter- 
nity is long, without beginning and without end; that all 
is not ended here; that each is held accountable for what 
is given to liim; that if this world were a garden of plenty, 
where there was no evil and therefore no choice between 
good and evil, then there would be no merit in resisting 
evil. 

That, in our daily choice between good and evil, in our 
buffetings with circumstances, in our fights " with beasts 
at Ephesus," within us and without, we make character; 
that without character we would be nothing, and that by 
what we are we shall be known in eternitj'. 

We say in sorrow it is not fair that one man should have 
to go through life with hunger, disappointment, suffering, 
and failure tracking his sinking footsteps, while another 
keeps step with laughter, plenty, and success; but some- 
how, as time ticks on, some of us come to understand 
dimly — to see through eyes " red with the rust of unshed 
tears" that perhaps success is not all of life and that fame 
and wealth and power are not the best things in life nor 
suffering and failure the worst things in life. 

But if the hope of conscious existence after the death of 
the body were to fade out of human life all this would be 
meaningless — the logic of existence would be utterly 
gone; the consolation of the weary and the oppressed 
would be turned to ashes, and the cries of human anguish, 
the prayers of human aspiration, would echo backward 

[42] 



Address of Mr. Hamilton, of Michigan 



upon a hopeless world from a black, impenetrable wall, 
and the highest aspiration to nobler manhood would be 
gone. 

If the behef that there is another stage of existence, 
where the day shall break and " the shadows flee away "; 
where the logic of life shall stand revealed; if the belief 
that there is an existence beyond this visible, tangible 
universe, where even man, sitting in judgment on him- 
self, shall be obliged to recognize that he can not gather 
what he has not sown; if the belief that there is an exist- 
ence beyond what our senses tell us of, where what we 
shall be shall have just relation to what we have been 
here — if all this shall fade out of human belief, then the 
very foundations upon which this huge yet delicate fabric 
of laws, government, and social institutions is built would 
slip from under us. 

We say in sorrow it is unjust that a man in his prime, 
at the beginning of a career, should be cut down; that the 
hope men set their hearts upon should turn to ashes. 

But shall the entity evolved out of yesterday and to 
disappear to-morrow querulously argue why and where- 
fore with the power that made it as it goes on its way? 

Besides, who knows that a career has been cut short? 

Tenacitj'^ of life is strong within us. We are seldom 
ready to lay down our tools and go out and shut the door 
forever; we always think we might have done more and 
better work, that the revolving wheel of life might have 
stopped at some lucky number, or that failure might have 
been transmuted into success. 

George Frederick Watts spoke of his paintings as "only 
studies of the picture that might have been"; but who 
knows? 

Who knows when the years would have begun to tar- 
nish the golden age of cooperating talent and power of 



[43] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

execution into the dimness of age, senility, and incom- 
petency? 

Time and again we see evidences that even experience 
is no safeguard against mistakes; that if life were patri- 
archal in its length each day would still bring new prob- 
lems, and that the longest life ends where it began — in a 
dream of happiness never realized. 

Old Jacob lived an hundred and thirty years. He had 
seen the angels of God ascending and descending. He 
had seen God face to face and still lived, and yet he told 
Pharaoh that " the days of the years of his life " had been 
" few and evil." 

It all comes back to this: If this little space in eternity 
which we call life is the beginning and the ending of it 
all, then it is an inexplicable tragedy; if it is a stage in a 
journey onward, then it is an opportunity. 



[44] 



Address of Mr. Sloan, of Nebraska 

Mr. Speaker: The end of the Sixty-second Congress 
comes on apace. The week days and nights are filled with 
pressing legislation, while our Sabbaths are crowded with 
congressional memorials. No Congress of our history can 
equal our necrology record — 6 Senators out of 96 and 
19 Representatives out of 394. A mortuary loss beyond 
that of the so-called hazardous occupations. Almost con- 
stant attendance at sessions, away from usual comforts 
of home, under the fitful and varying season and climatic 
conditions of our National Capital, the tribute to the final 
taxgatherer has been hea%'j' indeed. Hurried home visits 
for strenuous primary or election campaigns have se- 
verely tested the human fiber. It is little wonder that the 
weaker links of muscle or nerve have so often given 
way. The figures presented should be at once a pathetic 
plea against the Executive exercising extraordinary pre- 
rogatives and the exactions of a critical constituency. In 
the falling of this term's membership extreme age has 
had little part, continued and lingering illness but little 
more. The shock of physical accident has claimed its 
victim. In most cases death has been but the climax of 
toil and strain, resulting in mental or physical weakness, 
not noticed by the rest until the weakened link had 
snapped and a garland graces the deserted desk. Then it 
is admirers speak and his colleagues mourn. 

Congressman William W, Wedemeyer was among the 
fallen. Among liis colleagues perhaps one of the last ex- 
pected to be summoned. Like many of us, he was a new 
Member. In meeting my colleagues I judged after the 
manner of new Members. Of the old and distinguished 



[45] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 



Representatives we adapt our estimate to that resultant 
measure of a public man made by press and platform. 
Because every man who enters here is subjected to that 
leveling process based on praise or blame of colleague, 
criticism or encomium of the press, and the bold utter- 
ance, favorable or unfavorable, of the platform. Our 
judgment, therefore, of the older Members is, in part, 
ready-made. But new Members judge their fellows by 
stature, personal appearance, and those peculiar qualities 
beaming from countenance and seen in movement which 
go to make up the individual. 

I looked upon our late colleague from Michigan with 
interest and admiration. He came from that lake-locked 
State of the North, where so many men preeminent of 
brain and brawn have not only graced the public capital, 
but in the activities of the world made for themselves a 
quality and name which might be termed " Magic of Mich- 
igan." This is true not only of mature men, but our 
brothers alma mater on every field of collegiate manly 
sport has made the name of Michigan carry with it re- 
spect of public, and often consternation to the opposing 
team or crew. Tall, erect, powerful, vibrant with energ>% 
his features gleamed with intellectual force. When later 
seen in his early congressional forensic efforts there was 
predicted for him a great career, and for his State and 
district a distinguished Representative. Toward the end 
I saw him grow in power, influence, and esteem. To him 
the future seemed most kind. 

The exigencies of disturbed political conditions brought 
about the defeat of many strong men and did not spare 
our friend. Defeat to him was a bitter draft in an 
unwelcome chalice. More bitter to him than to many 
others. Like too many, he erred in construing temporary 
rejection as a reflection upon his record and ability. 
That is not always a true test. The sovereign will is ex- 

[46] 



Address of Mr. Sloan, of Nebraska 



pressed regardless of record, service, or ability. Being 
sovereign, it brooks neither question nor criticism. So, 
the rejected servant must not seek to measure too accu- 
rately the consideration he has tendered for the favor 
the public maj' extend. The public seldom makes de- 
mand for us. She owes us no certain term. Her refusal 
to extend should neither be criticized nor commended. 

He was one of a congressional party leaving New York 
for Panama, the scene of the world's greatest engineering 
feat. It was at that point where Columbus sought to find 
a passage to the Far East; but four centuries have taught 
us that it must be made; it can not be found. Congress- 
man Wedemeyer knew the tropic region, having ably 
represented his countiy's interests in that vicinity before 
his election to Congress. It was thought that the healing 
breezes of the* sea would give him rest and restore his 
health; but six days on the main merely accentuated his 
malady. So, the visit of our company to the great canal 
and its activities were not shared by him. 

On January 2 we left Colon for New York on the ship 
Panama. It was a bright, balmy day. The Caribbean, 
known to seamen as " that fretful mistress," was unusu- 
ally calm and inviting. We rejoiced in the glad thought 
that we were all " coming home." It was not thought that 
one of our number was " going home." 

We watched the receding landmarks as the sun sank 
toward the other ocean. The Columbus Statue faded 
from vision. Colon under its palms fell behind the hori- 
zon, and as the night came down the signal lights of 
Porto Bello alone told of solid earth. I talked with our 
brother just before nightfall. To attempted quip and 
labored joke he gave reluctant ear; but when I spoke in 
the language of his fathers and recited verses in Teuton 
tongue, he brightened and responded in kind, seeming 
then more like the " distinguished Member from Michi- 



[47] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 



gan " than I had observed for many days. Another hour 
had not passed when the tragedy of the southern sea had 
been enacted. 

The sea had taken on a gentle roll, but it seemed with 
no fretful anger wrought. It was not dark, though no 
moon was there. The southern cross in majesty hung 
pendent in its place. The guard on the hurricane deck 
was low. His body fell athwart its rail. There was a 
splash and he was gone. "A break in the wave, and he 
passed from this life to a rest in the grave." In vain were 
engines stopped; bootless the searchlight swept the neigh- 
boring sea; and without result were boats, with hardy 
sailors manned, sent on missions of search. 

And our stately ship went on 

To its haven under the hill, 

But O for the touch of a vanished hand 

And the sound of a voice that is still. 

Sadness and gloom marked our homeward voyage. 
Upon our memories was impressed that tragic scene 
which, until the final summons comes to us, whether on 
land or sea, will remain till we exchange those memories 
for present knowledge of our brother in that — 

Land far away 'mid the stars (as) I am told, 

Where they know not the sorrows of time, 

Where the pure waters wander through the valleys of gold 

And life is a treasure sublime. 

Unlike the oral musing of the melancholy Dane, he saw 
no "sea of trouble"; he may have found a sea of rest. 
We will not vaunt the stern philosophy of Aristotle nor 
yet take comfort from the stoicism of Seneca. We have 
a philosophy more modern and more comforting. It is 
the philosophy of Him " who doeth all things well," and 
who of us will say that it has not been so? 



[48] 



Akdress of Mr. Sloan, of Nebraska 



Had we our choice we would much have preferred that 
a bell should have been tolled, a shroud provided, and the 
body given to the earth; that a marble monument or 
granite shaft should mark the place; that an acacian 
shrub should stand above; and that flowers should be laid 
by loving hands to link him with their lives. But now 
only upon a chart marking distance from land, with 
memoranda of latitude and longitude, can his tomb be 
designated. 

When we think of this place, near the historic shores of 
the Spanish Main, there is an interest prompted in his 
resting place. We know the coral reefs are there; layers 
of whitest pearls are in the sunken caverns; shells of rain- 
bow beaut>' gleam and gems of richest quality, by nature 
placed, lie in the depths profound. In that vicinity lie 
sunken treasure-laden galleons and rich argosies sunk by 
sea-swept tempest or purposely sent to bottom to escape 
the pirate's capture. Doubloons of rich old gold are 
there; sparkling jewels dropped from shrunken fingers 
and richest ornament by beautj' worn all lie in the " hol- 
low sounding and mysterious main." But the richest, 
brightest, purest of all the gems and jewels as tributes 
paid to that exacting and remorseless deep are the mind 
and life of Congressman Wedemeyer, for whom we this 
day sincerelj' mourn. 



11358°— 14 i [49] 



Address of Mr. J. M. C. Smith, of Michigan 

Mr. Speaker: The hand of death has rested heavily on 
the Sixty-second Congress. Heretofore as I have listened 
to kind words and loving tributes of Members of different 
States delivered in memory of their dead brothers, I 
thought that Michigan was extremely fortunate in hav- 
ing no such ofiice to perform. But at a time when we were 
thinking least about it the hand of death visited our dele- 
gation and took the youngest member, the one whom we 
thought might be the last to go. I am especially pleased 
to hear the tributes of love, affection, and esteem deliv- 
ered here to-day not only from his colleagues from Michi- 
gan but from other States. It shows the high esteem 
and respect in which he was held by the Members of this 
House. 

Mr. Speaker, Hon. William W. Wedemeyer, Congress- 
man from the second congressional district of Michigan, 
elected at the November election of 1910, was serving his 
first term as Representative from that district when death 
overtook him on his way back to Washington from 
Panama. 

Mr. Wedemeyer was born in Washtenaw County, Mich., 
and after attending the district schools of that vicinity 
he went with his parents to Ann Arbor, where, after 
graduating from the high school, he worked his way 
through the University of Michigan with the untiring 
energy which characterized all that he did, and his be- 
loved alma mater to him was always a personal pride and 
the subject of his constant solicitude. Mr. Wedeme'V'er 
was nearing the age of 40 at the time of his death. He 
was a lawyer bj' profession, and had won an enviable 



[50] 



Address of Mr. J. M. C. Smith, of Michigan 

reputation at the bar. He was a close student, a fine 
orator, and a convincing speaker. Before coming to Con- 
gress he had held many positions of honor and trust. He 
had served as school commissioner of his county, and was 
appointed deputy railroad commissioner of his State 
under Gov. Pingree. Subsequently he became consul to 
British Guiana, in South America. All of these positions 
he filled with credit and honor. Trained in the severe 
school of experience, when the morning sun of life, so 
full of hope and promise, seemed to be rising and shin- 
ing most brightly, when success seemed so certain, when 
the public was so expectant of his superior ability and 
his great intellectual powers, he laid down the burdens of 
his activities amid the cherished hopes of his friends 
that to him would be long life and long future usefulness, 
and he passed to the great beyond, a loved, esteemed, and 
greatly admired friend, husband, and father. His life's 
work and duties are ended, but the many deeds of kind- 
ness and of worth performed by him will remain an in- 
spiration to us all and to those who come after us, and 
especially to those who, single handed and alone, must 
battle for position and honor. That the world is made 
better by his efforts, that his pure, upright, and noble 
life will lead others to higher walks, let us firmly believe. 
Let us cherish the hope that all will be well in the future 
and that we may perform our full duty, face our tasks, 
and as citizens take up the duty of performing better our 
part. Emerson says: 

There is no record left on earth, 
Save in the tablets of the heart. 

William Wedemeylr was a man of exemplary life and 
high culture, and endeared himself to all by his cheerful, 
jovial, buoyant nature. He was a statesman; his State, 
his colleagues, and his acquaintances expected much of 



[51] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

him, and their admiration for liim was akin to affection. 
Large of stature and of heart, everybody loved him. 

Mr. Wedemeyer was greatly interested in his congres- 
sional work and duties. He practically carried his work 
with him, whether at his room, his office, or on the floor 
of the House, and found little time for diversion or enter- 
tainment. We can almost see him now there at his desk, 
when debate is the most strenuous and interest the most 
intense, reading, writing, working — always busj'. " That 
is Wedemeyer, of Michigan," was pointed out in the gal- 
lery and whispered on the floor of the House, when his 
large, stately, manly form passed down the aisle, always 
with a smile and a kindly word for all. 

In the discharge of his trust the public welfare was his 
greatest solicitude. He conversed freely with his col- 
leagues concerning the details of the measures upon 
which he voted, and his actions thereon were uniformly 
right. Public life to liim carried no secrets. He served 
on the important Committees on Territories and on Ex- 
penditures in the State Department. He worked hard to 
give home rule to Alaska, and joined with his colleague, 
the Delegate, Mr. Wickersham, in liis greeting to that far- 
off land: 

Hail from the land of the northern light, 
Whose arctic halo illumines the night. 
Hail from the land of the midnight sun. 
Where the mighty Yukon's waters run. 

Mr. Wedemeyer's extensive travels, scrupulous upright- 
ness, and liigh sense of honor gave him particular fitness 
for these positions. He was not returned to Congress in 
the election of 1912, and while he felt the defeat keenly, 
he seemed in good spirits and to be reconciled to the re- 
sult, but overwork, a fall, and sickness undermined even 
his iron constitution. 



[52] 



Address of Mr. J. M. C. Smith, of Michigan 



It was my privilege to be present at the memorial exer- 
cise held in his home city of Ann Arbor. There thou- 
sands of liis fellow townsmen, friends, and neighbors, 
with many from other cities and States, met in University 
Hall, where formerly he had received his college degree 
with highest honors. They paid high respect and tributes 
of love and esteem to his memory, and many testified to 
the worth of his splendid life. 

We do well to meet here to-day and in this Chamber, 
the place of his last activities, to give expression to our 
admiration of the man and do reverence to the memory 
of our departed colleague. It is not given us to know or 
to look into the future life. Possibly some of us hesitate 
because death seems a long way off. However that may 
be, it is certain to come, and as Covert said on an occasion 
similar to this: 

To the past go iiiorc dear faces, 

Every year, 
As the loved leave vacant places 

Every year; 
Everywhere their sad eyes meet us, 
In the evening's dusk they greet us 
And to come to them entreat us, 

Every year. 

But the true life draws niglicr 

Every year. 
And its morning star shines higher 

Every year; 
Earthly hold on us grows slighter, 
And its heavy burdens lighter 
And the dav^-n imniorfal brighter, 

Every year. 



[53] 



Address of Mr. Sweet, of Michigan 

Mr. Speaker: As one of the long-time friends of Wil- 
liam W. Wedemeyer and one of his companions upon the 
trip to Panama, I wish at this time to briefly express my 
affection for him as a friend, my appreciation for him as 
a man of extraordinary ability and promise, and my ad- 
miration for his self-sacrificing heroism. 

No one who had the good fortune to know Mr. Wede- 
meyer intimately could fail to recognize in his friendship 
a peculiar quality of loyalty and whole-hearted devotion 
which ignored the existence of self-interest or political or 
other barriers. He valued men for their intrinsic worth. 
If they measured up to his standard of character and 
devotion to duty, he took them into his great heart with- 
out reserve. Such friends he found in all parts of the 
State of Micliigan, and such friends he found among his 
colleagues of the Sixty-second Congress, who uniformly 
reciprocated his sentiment and now mourn his untimely 
decease with a deep sense of personal loss. 

It is not my purpose to dwell upon the extraordinary 
mental equipment of Mr. Wedemeyer or the success of 
his brief but honorable career, which gave promise of 
greater victories to come. I shall confine my remarks to 
a single phase of his character, which was brought out 
in the strongest colors during the last days of his life. 
Those of you who knew him merely as a conscientious 
worker in this House could hardly have realized the ex- 
istence of the qualities to which I refer. Intimate friends 
who were not with him at the last could not have fully 
understood and appreciated them. 

Within a few days the whole civilized world has been 
shocked at the news of the death of Capt. Scott, the great 



[54] 



Address of Mr. Sweet, of Michigan 

English Antarctic explorer, and his brave companions. 
No narrow line of nationality prevents the free expression 
of sympathy for these martyrs to the cause of science and 
admiration for their courage and endurance. The news- 
papers tell us that Capt. Lawrence E. G. Oatcs, whose in- 
\incible bravery in the Boer War obtained for him the 
title of " No Surrender Oates," a member of this band of 
explorers, performed an act of heroism never surpassed 
in the annals of history. With hands and feet badly 
frozen he believed that he had become a drag upon his 
companions and a menace to their escape. Leaving the 
little hut in which the party had taken shelter, with that 
simplicity which is characteristic of true greatness, he 
remarked, " I am going outside and may be gone some 
time "; and so he walked forth into the night and into the 
storm, never to return. 

Such acts of self-sacrifice are not limited to any age or 
country. They are an honor to human nature. They 
glorify mankind. 

Those who were with Mr. Wedemeyer during his last 
days know that one department of his mind was the vic- 
tim of serious disease. They know that just as a wounded 
soldier may sit and contemplate and freely discuss the 
chance of saving a mutilated member of his body, so did 
our friend endeavor to diagnose his own mental derange- 
ment. They know that he was fully convinced that re- 
covery was impossible and that the future held for him 
no prospect of happiness for himself or of adding to the 
happiness of others. More than that, they know that by 
his own process of reasoning, which no argument could 
overcome, he was convinced that from that time forth 
his physical existence would be an ever-increasing burden 
to those he loved best 

Deploring as we must the possible error of his reason- 
ing no one doubts its sincerity. If relief for Capt. Scott 

[55] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

and his partj' had without their knowledge been within 
easy access, it would in no way have detracted from the 
lieroism of Capt. Gates. The all-important point is his 
belief. We can never know the tortuous processes of rea- 
soning which passed through the mind of our colleague, 
but from what he said to me on the last day of his life 
and from what he said to other members of our party, 
as well as myself, during the days previous, I shall never 
have any doubt that an intention to sacrifice himself for 
what he believed to be the good of others inspired him, 
and that the impulses of a great and generous heart were 
substituted for the control of a brain which no one real- 
ized more clearly than himself was diseased. 

Sensitive, conscientious, modest, and unassuming to the 
point of self-depreciation, he w^ould be the last one to 
claim credit for what he did, and if he had spoken a 
final word it would have been like him to simply say, " I 
am going outside, and may be gone some time." 



[56] 



Address of Mr. Sharp, of Ohio 

Mr. Speaker: Three weeks ago to-day, with the sky 
overhead as beautiful and as clear as reigns outside of 
this Chamber at this noonday hour, there was assembled 
in University Hall at Ann Arbor a notable gathering of 
mourners. Four thousand of that college town's people, 
augmented by many men of prominence from all over 
the State of Michigan and the National Capital, had come 
to do reverence and express their sorrow at the loss of a 
distinguished citizen. In that great assemblage were men 
high in the State's and Nation's public life, and instructors 
of the university of national reputation. On the platform 
near the center and about whom were gathered those who 
were to participate in the memorial ceremonies sat the 
venerable Dr. Angell, for a generation the president of 
one of America's greatest institutions of learning. With 
that calm dignity and serenitj' of countenance, the out- 
ward manifestation of the spirit and nobility of character 
within, the presence of this grand old man of learning 
would in itself have sufficiently attested the regard and 
high esteem in which he whose death we here mourn was 
held among his own people. At the side of the venerable 
Dr. Angell sat President Hutchins, the virile head of that 
great university. On either side of him were seated dis- 
tinguished men of Michigan who had come to express 
their sorrow and in one common voice sound the praises 
of the one for whom they mourned. In front of them 
sat with bowed heads, first and nearest to the platform, 
the closer friends of the deceased, and then the to%vns- 
people, filling every chair in the pit and galleries of that 
great auditorium — the scene on many occasions for a half 
century of rare educational, musical, and festal events. 

[57] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 



Beginning the ceremonies early in the afternoon, as one 
speaker after another reviewed the life and character of 
our departed friend and colleague, the setting sun, pour- 
ing through the western windows, had flooded the cham- 
ber of mourning with its mellow light before the exercises 
were concluded. Of the speakers some, who had known 
him as friend and fellow townsman, spoke of his early 
struggle in life to secure the means by which he might 
pursue his studies through the university; others, whose 
acquaintance began with him in his early manhood, spoke 
in feeling terms of appreciation of his sterling qualities 
as a lawyer; while others, who had been his coworkers 
in civic and political life, referred in terms of highest 
praise to his achievements in that broader field of activity. 

Such, my colleagues, were the scenes attending the 
memorial ceremonies of the late William W. Wedemeyer 
in his home town of Ann Arbor on that Sabbath afternoon 
in counterpart to like ceremonies which we are attending 
to-day. Though the cruel waves of a tropical sea, in a 
most fateful manner, had robbed these ceremonies of his 
poor body, yet to those who knew him he was just as much 
present in spirit as though his living person was again 
among them, and the memory of what he was will dwell 
with them as long as they shall live. 

It was President Garfield who said of Mark Hopkins, the 
president of Williams College, where he attended, that to 
have been merely acquainted and associated with him 
was in itself a liberal education. With how much more 
truth may it be said of the advantages, both as to the 
moral and mental training, of one whose whole life has 
been spent in the atmosphere and environment of the 
great men who have since its beginning guided the des- 
tinies of such an institution as the University of Michigan. 
It has been said that poets and authors have in many 
instances won their inspiration from the scenes surround- 

[58] 



Address of Mr. Sharp, of Ohio 



ing their childhood days, and we know that this must be 
true to some extent with men of lesser fame. Who shall 
say that that love of knowledge, those qualities of ster- 
ling character, and that desire to be useful to his fellow 
men did not spring from the inspiration of that institu- 
tion quite as much indeed as from the knowledge of 
books which William Wedemeyer imbibed from his 
studies at Ann Arbor? May we not see in these attributes 
a reflection of the influence of example which came from 
association with those gifted men, and may we not — and 
I speak as an alumnus myself of that grand old univer- 
sity — also find an explanation for them in no small de- 
gree, not alone in the very environment of a town upon 
which nature has herself lavished so many charms in its 
hills, dales, and charming sylvan retreats on the banks of 
the Huron, but also from the daily contact with the towns- 
people so enlightened and alive to the importance of ac- 
cording to their students a most kindly and sympathetic 
welcome? William Wedemeyer would have indeed been 
recreant to his duty and false to his whole training had 
he been anything else than the splendid example . of 
American manhood by which we knew him. 

Others of his colleagues, who have been fortunate in 
knowing him for a longer time than I, have to-day justly 
spoken in praise of his services as a Member of this body. 
From my acquaintance with him, I think it not unwar- 
ranted to say for him that had the fate which governs 
human affairs held in store for him more kindlj' things 
and given to him a longer span of life his abilities and 
sincerity of purpose would have placed him in the front 
rank in the delegation which so ably represents his native 
State. My first impression of him as he appeared in 
earnest debate upon this floor never changed. Indeed, 
that impression settled into a firm conviction that he was 
destined to play an important part in the legislation of 



[59] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

Congress if his constituents had the wisdom to see in him 
the promise which all of his colleagues could see. While 
we mourn his loss to-day, my colleagues, not only to the 
State and the Nation, but as deeply personal to ourselves, 
yet may we not be comforted in the thought that though 
that great mind, full of potential capacity — that temple of 
reason — was tottering to a fall, yet his last act was, after 
all, one of heroic purpose, and as he lived so he died, his 
last thought one of devotion and one of conscientious duty 
as husband and father, as the remnant of that clouded 
intellect saw it to be, to those he so dearly loved? 



[60] 



Address of Mr. Ainey, of Pennsylvania 

Mr. Speaker: William W. Wedemeyer, statesman, 
scholar, lawyer, citizen, husband, father, friend. With 
no unequal emphasis in all his contacts he exercised high 
qualities. 

Like radii, each characteristic fell not short of reaching 
the outer circle of well-rounded accomplishment, and 
each complemented the other. His honesty of purpose, 
his gentleness of heart, his inherent and studiously ac- 
quired powers of mind were of the fabric of the man and 
wore well, whether in the political, professional, or social 
circles of his activities. What he was in the full sunlight 
of his public career he remained in the twilight of his 
own home. He had but one standard and this he applied 
more rigorously to himself than his sympathetic charitj' 
permitted him to do to others. He loved the good and 
pure and noble, and of him it might well be said : " Be- 
hold the upright man and just." 

Not the sun of limited circumference, but its beams, 
penetrating to distant realms, touch far-off worlds with 
life and light. It is not the man of inch-measured height 
and breadth, but the effulgence of a high and noble char- 
acter whose rays radiate rare influence which, illuminat- 
ing the pathway of others, affects the destiny of men and 
nations. 

WiLLLAM W. Wedemeyer's life spanned the distances 
separating liim from his fellow men, and he brought 
them within the touch of his keen mind and warm heart. 
The ubiquity of his generous sympathies paralleled his 
wide experience, deep learning, and rock-laid integrity. 



[61] 



Memorial Addresses : Representative Wedemeyer 

Such a character is unique. It yields not readily to 
analysis; it must be felt. The song of birds, the hum of 
bees, the flutter of the butterfly, the tint of flower, the 
sheltering shadows of the mighty tree, the murmur of the 
brook, the roar of ocean are indivisible, and refuse a 
revelation of their best to the contracted eyes of peering 
science. 

To seek to separate the man from his attainments, to 
differentiate between his accomplishments and his ideals, 
would be to lose the dominant note in the melody of his 
life. Whether in one walk or another — in Nation. State, 
or home — the motive was the same — he gave rich expres- 
sion to a tried and experienced high-mindedness. 

How may we lift up our sorrowing faces under our 
bereavement? With what consolation may we reconcile 
ourselves to this untimely loss? What philosophy is 
there to alleviate the deadening pain which such parting 
brings? It is difficult for finite minds to harmonize need 
and loss. 

The great Nation, to the solution of whose problems in 
the interest of its people he had dedicated his efficient 
efforts; the large circle of friends and acquaintances who 
relied upon his wise counsel and warm-hearted assist- 
ance; the hallowed and loved circle of his own home find 
the solution hard. 

Is it not because it is difficult for us to divest ourselves 
of our own desires? Work never ends, and ages would 
not be sufficient for any man to complete a task. Man's 
work is well done, then, when he has impressed upon it 
the mark and plane of high ideal whereby others coming 
after may find a guidance and an inspiration toward 
accomplishment. 

My acquaintance lasted, it seemed to me, not longer 
than a fragrant day of blossoming spring. We were 
brought together through the instrumentality of a sym- 

[62] 



Address of Mr. Ainey, of Pennsylvania 



pathetic and mutual friend upon my advent to the Halls 
of Congress. Many arc the treasures which memory gives 
of the too brief hours when mind and heart rambled 
together along some chosen pathway of common interest, 
where I was permitted to see and feel and know the high 
and purposeful which linked his life to his country, home, 
and friends, and now makes me rich in the recollection of 
the last hour we spent together, when he sought me out 
and told me of unselfish aspirations, where others occu- 
pied chief part and place. 

The Great Master who saw and understood the mystery 
of the human heart revealed the underlying principle of 
love. I may say, expressive of this truth, that hidden in 
my heart of hearts I retain this jewel of my great aflTection 
for his memory : 

He was my friend. 



[63] 



Address of Mr. Samuel W. Smith, of Michigan 

Mr. Speaker: We are again forcibly reminded that in 
the midst of hfe we are in death. 

The news of the taking away of our colleague, as con- 
veyed to me by Senator Townsend, was a great shock, 
for when I bade him good-by in this Chamber on the day 
he started for his home, to go, as he then expected, with 
his wife to Panama, he never seemed better or more full 
of cheer and hope. 

It has been my good fortune to enjoy an intimate ac- 
quaintance with him for many years. I have long known 
his desire to be a Member of Congress, and it may be a 
surprise, even to some of his most intimate friends, to 
know that he was not enamored with congressional life, 
for he has often said to me during his term of service that 
he would be satisfied if he could serve another term, and 
I think, eminently satisfactory as his services were, he 
would have been content to retire at the end of another 
term, to engage not wholly in the practice of his profes- 
sion — the law — but also to pursue his literary work and 
lecture, and in this he also would have been a pronounced 
success. 

It is given to but few men to make a more enviable 
record than he has during his first term — faithful, honest, 
patient, and industrious; always courteous and kind. 

His popularity was as wide as his acquaintance, which 
was extensive, and those of us who journeyed to his 
home city, Ann Arbor, January 26, witnessed an outpour- 
ing of the people in University Hall that was the highest 
evidence of his popularity and the esteem in which he 
was held by all classes of people, who gave touching and 



[64] 



Address of Mr. Samuel W. Smith, of Michigan 

sincere proof of their great regard for their fellow citizen 
and honored Member of Congress. 

His wife, children, and friends can console themselves 
in the years to come with the thought that our deceased 
brother lived up to the full measure of all his oppor- 
tunities, and that the world is brighter and better for his 
having lived. 

Friend and colleague, I bid you a last farewell, hoping 
we shall meet in the great beyond. 



11358°— 14 5 [65] 



Address of 
Former Representative John J. Lentz, of Ohio 

Mr. Willis. Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Ohio and 
others who have spoken on this occasion have referred 
to the memorial exercises held at Ann Arhor three weeks 
ago to-day. Those exercises certainly were a wonderful 
and touching tribute to the memory of a great man. Sev- 
eral of the friends of our deceased brother have asked 
that at least one of the many notable speeches made on 
that occasion shall be preserved in permanent form. I 
therefore ask unanimous consent to insert in the Record 
the remarks of former Congressman John J. Lentz, deliv- 
ered on that occasion. 

The Speaker pro tempore. The gentleman from Ohio 
asks unanimous consent to print in the Record the re- 
marks of former Congressman Lentz at the memorial 
services referred to. Is there objection? 

There was no objection. 

The matter is as follows: 

Former Congressman John J. Lentz, of Columbus, Ohio, spoke 
at the Ann Arbor Wedemeyer memorial exercises not only as a 
close friend of Mr. Wedemeyer but also in behalf of the American 
Insurance Union and in behalf of the Masonic bodies of the city 
of Ann Arbor, as follows: 

" Never before and probably never again shall I occupy the 
same relation to any memorial service in honor of any man or 
woman as that which inspires me to perform a threefold duty 
to-day. I speak from a heart overflowing with gratitude and 
affection, remembering the fidelity and cordiality of Brother 
Wedemeyer's friendship from the 22d day of February, 1895, 
when we first met in this hall on the occasion of my delivering 
the Washington Birthday address on behalf of the law depart- 
ment of this the greatest of all the American universities. 

[66] 



Address of Former Representative Lentz, of Ohio 



"I speak of Brother Wedemeyer, mindful of the eloquent and 
sympathetic words spoken by him in ray own home on the 25th 
of July, 1910, in the parting hour when my best friends carried 
away from me forever the frail frame of her whose pure love, 
brilliant mind, and sympathetic heart were the greatest treasure 
and the brighest light that ever came into view upon the horizon 
of my earthly career. 

" I also speak as the chosen representative of the Masonic 
bodies of this beautiful city of Ann Arbor, the home of his alma 
mater and the home of my alma mater, and as the national presi- 
dent of the American Insurance Union I speak of him as the 
national counselor of its national board, governing the fraternal 
and financial destiny of an institution extending its protection 
and fellowship to the homes of 28,000 good men and women 
throughout these United States, together with the tens and tens of 
thousands of their children who, through their parents, have 
learned to love the name of Wedemeyer. 

" Our departed brother became a member of the American In- 
surance Union on the 14th day of September, 1899, and was 
initiated in Golden Rule Lodge of the Masonic order of this city 
on the 12th day of April, 1900, and was passed and raised from 
degree to degree through the Blue Lodge, the Chapter, the Com- 
mandery, and reached the Shrine in the fall of 1906. 

" My brothers of the Masonic order here advise me that he w as 
always willing to help at all of their functions and that he was a 
strong and cfTicient factor in the growth of the Masonic order 
here. Those of us who knew him away from his home in this 
municipal center can appreciate how fully and how happily he 
served our Masonic brothers in their every purpose and their 
highest aims and ideals. From the beginning to the end of his 
Masonic career he demonstrated to each and every brother of that 
order, as he has always demonstrated to each and every member 
of every organization with which he was afiiliated, that he was a 
man, every inch a man, free-born, of good repute, and well 
recommended and better and better recommended from day to 
day as men knew him better and better in his increasing power 
and influence and service. 

" Our departed brother was no ordinary man. He was an ex- 
ample and a leader in every walk of life. He was of heroic 
stature, physically, mentally, and morally. His was a personality 
so happy, so generous, so industrious that those who knew him 

[67] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

best will never forget him nor will they ever realize that he has 
taken his departure and entered upon a career still more active 
in a sphere much larger than this our common mother earth. 
Philosophers, theologians, and scientists have for thousands of 
years discussed and analyzed the question of immortality. To 
all who knew William W. Wedemeyer such discussions are vain 
and futile, because it is impossible to think of him without feeling 
and saying with one accord, ' Of course we shall meet him again.' 
We are as sure of his immortality and of meeting his genial com- 
panionable identity when we get into that future world ourselves 
as we are of our personal identity to-day in this world. 

"If it be true, as Emerson has said, that to be rich in friends is 
to be poor in nothing, then well may we content ourselves and 
congratulate his good wife and children with the suggestion that 
William W. Wedemeyer was a millionaire in this world and he 
will be a multimillionaire by the time we join him in the world 
to come. 

" It was Telemachus, of Athens, who said: ' 'Tis ever wrong to 
say a good man dies,' and there is no member of the national 
board or of the national cabinet or anywhere in the chapters of 
the American Insurance Union who will not agree with this old 
Athenian philosopher. 

" It will be impossible to find anyone who knew our departed 
brother, William W. Wedemeyer, who will not agree with us that 
' to know him was to love him.' His great, generous heart loved 
all mankind. He exemplified in his work and in his personal 
association with each and all of us the doctrine of ' loving his 
neighbor as he loved himself.' He was not only a true fraternalist 
but a great fraternalist — a positive, earnest, industrious soul that 
overlooked no opportunity and lost no opportunity to serve his 
fellow man. 

" He was too broad and too great in his sympathies and in his 
generosity and in his religion to recognize class, faction, creed, or 
sect. He believed in a God that taught him that ' He who serves 
man the most loves God the best.' 

" By every word and every act of our departed brother he 
taught us the value, the beauty, and the holiness of ' courage, 
honor, courtesy, and fidelity.' By every word and every act he 
taught us that he not only preached but practiced these great 
virtues, and with it all and through it all he devoted himself to 
our creed of ' help in need ' and ' all for one and one for all.' 

[681 



Address of Former Representative Lentz, of Ohio 



" Each and every member of the national board is proud of 
the friendship, fellowship, and comradeship of our national 
counselor, the Hon. William W. Wedemeyer, and proud of his 
national distinction as a public servant, and grateful to his good 
wife and his three little children for the many hours, days, weeks, 
months, and years of his good time which they so generously 
permitted him to contribute to the cause and upbuilding of the 
American Insurance Union. We shall ever be grateful to his 
good mother, who gave him birth on the 22d day of March, 1873, 
and prepared him in his youthful years for a life and a career 
of honesty and fidelity so noble, so pure, and so true to his 
fellow man that we may justly claim for him what some dis- 
tinguished Roman said of his friend: ' He was a better friend to 
everybody than anybody is to anybody.' 

" We feel sure that we do not overestimate the great work of 
Brother Wedemeyer's earthly career when we say that his un- 
timely death, before he reached the age of 40, was largely due to 
the fact that ever since his boyhood he has crowded into each day 
of his life two or three times as much work as is ordinarily done 
by active and energetic men. 

" In bearing testimony to his high ideals, his untiring energy, 
his restless anxiety to do more and more each day for all 
humanity, we feel justified in saying that it is not too high praise 
to claim for him that as a public servant, associated with Gov. 
Pingree and other distinguished men of the great Commonwealth 
of Michigan, and also associated with the great and good public 
men who make up the high and honorable body of our American 
Congress at Washington, he accomplished more within the short 
span of his earthly career than most men accomplish who live 
God's allotted years of threescore and ten. 

" We are proud to have had the fellowship of such a graduate 
of the great University of Michigan, whose broad scholarship, 
brilliant oratory, and eminent statesmanship won for him and his 
alma mater a national distinction and prominence of more than 
a master's degree. 

" Each member of our national board joins with the good wife 
and children of our departed brother in tearful sympathy in a 
bereavement over a loss that extends far beyond the walls of their 
good home and touches every one of the 28,000 members of the 
American Insurance Union, and touches all good men and good 
women in the United States who appreciate and honor the 

[69] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedeme\^r 



memory of Brother Wedemeyer's generous, self-sacrificing, patri- 
otic devotion to tlie betterment and advancement of his fellow 
men. And each and every member of our national board mourns 
■with the members of his family and extends them the most 
sincere sympathy and tenders them every possible assistance in 
their bereavement. 

"Remembering our good brother's happy personality, we can 
best express ourselves in the words of James Whitcomb Riley : 

" ' I can not say, I will not say. 
That he is dead — he is just away. 
With a cheery smile and a wave of the hand 
He has wandered into an unknown land 
And left us dreaming; how very fair 
It needs must be, since he lingers there. 
Think of him still the same, I say; 
He is not dead — he is just away.' 

" In the words of George Eliot, we are sure that he has — 

" ' Joined the choir invisible 

Of those immortal souls who live again 
In minds made better by their presence.' 

" Or, in the words of Bulwer Lytton, let us say: 

"'There is no death; an angel form 

Walks o'er the earth with silent tread; 
He bears our best loved things away. 
And then we call them dead.' 

" In our common grief, our utter helplessness, we cry out in 
the poetic thought of George Dyre Eldridge: 

" ' We come from the chambers of silence, the gift of the gods 
is breath. 
We go to the chambers of silence, the gift of the gods is death.' " 

leave to print 

Mr. Hamilton of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I ask unani- 
mous consent that all Members may have leave to print 
on the life, character, and public services of the late Mr. 
Wedemeyer. 



[70] 



Proceedings in the House 



The Speaker pro tempore. The gentleman from Michi- 
gan asks unanimous consent that all Members may have 
leave to print in the Record remarks on the life, character, 
and public services of the late Mr. Wedemeyer. Is there 
objection? 

There was no objection. 

adjournment 

Then, in accordance with the resolutions heretofore 
agreed to, at 4 o'clock and 6 minutes p. m., the House 
adjourned until to-morrow, Monday, February 17, 1913, 
at 12 o'clock noon. 

Monday, February 24, 1913. 
A message from the Senate, by Mr. Crockett, one of its 
clerks, announced that the Senate had passed the follow- 
ing resolutions: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with deep sorrow of the 
death of the Hon. William W. Wedemeyer, late a Member of the 
House of Representatives from the State of Michigan. 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the 
deceased the business of the Senate be suspended in order that 
proper tribute may be paid to his high character and distin- 
guished public services. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of these 
resolutions to the House of Representatives and to the family of 
the deceased. 

Also — 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of 
Mr. Rayner, Mr. Utter, and Mr. Wedemeyer the Senate do now 
adjourn. 



[71] 



Proceedings in the Senate 

Saturday, January 4, 1913. 

A message from the House of Representatives, by D. K. 
Hempstead, its enrolling clerk, communicated to the 
Senate the intelligence of the death of Hon. William W. 
Wedemeyer, late a Representative from the State of 
Michigan, and transmitted resolutions of the House 
thereon. 

Mr. TowNSEND. I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate 
the resolutions received from the House of Represent- 
atives. 

The President pro tempore. The Chair lays before the 
Senate the resolutions of the House, which will be read. 

The resolutions were read, as follows: 

In the House of Representatives, 

January 3, 1913. 
Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of Hon. William W. Wedemeyer, a Representative from 
the State of Michigan. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate and transmit a copy thereof to the family of the deceased. 

Mr. TowNSEND. Mr. President, at the proper time I shall 
ask that a day be set apart for the purpose of commemo- 
rating in a proper manner the character and life of the 
late Mr. Wedemeyer. I ask at this time for the adoption 
of the resolutions I send to the desk. 

The President pro tempore. The Senator from Michi- 
gan submits resolutions for which he asks present con- 
sideration. 



[73] 



Memorial Addresses : Representative Wedemeyer 

The resolutions (S. Res. 419) were read, considered by 
unanimous consent, and unanimously agreed to, as fol- 
lows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with deep sensibility the 
announcement of the death of Hon. William W. Wedemeyer, late 
a Representative from the State of Michigan. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions to 
the House of Representatives and transmit a copy thereof to the 
family of the deceased. 

Mr. TowNSEND. Mr. President, I move, as a further 
mark of esteem and respect, that the Senate do now 
adjourn. 

The motion was unanimously agreed to; and (at 4 
o'clock and 5.5 minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned until 
Monday, January 6, 1913, at 12 o'clock meridian. 

Tuesday, January :/4, 1913. 

A message from the House of Representatives, by J. C. 
South, its Chief Clerk, announced to the Senate that the 
House had passed a resolution appointing a committee of 
15 Members, with such Members of the Senate as may be 
joined, to attend memorial services for Hon. William W. 
Wedemeyer, late a Representative from the State of 
Michigan, to be held at Ann Arbor, Mich. 

Mr. TowNSEND. May I ask to have laid before the Senate 
the resolutions which have just come from the ^ouse? 

The President pro tempore laid before the Senate the 
following resolutions of the House of Representatives, 
which were read: 

In the House of Representatives, 

January 11, 1913. 
Resolved, That a committee of 15 Members of the House, with 
such Members of the Senate as may be joined, be appointed to 
attend memorial services for Hon. William W. Wedemeyer, late 
a Representative from the State of Michigan, to be held at Ann 
Arbor, Mich. 



[74] 



Proceedings in the Senate 



Resolved, That the Sergeant at Anns of the House be author- 
ized and directed to take such steps as may be necessary for 
carrying out the provisions of this resolution, and that the neces- 
sary expenses in connection therewith be paid out of the con- 
tingent fund of tlie House. 

Mr. TowNSEND. I offer the following resolution and ask 
for its immediate consideration. 

The President pro tempore. The resolution will be 
read. 

The resolution (S. Res. 430) was read, considered by 
unanimous consent, and agreed to, as follows: 

Resolved, That a committee of six Senators be appointed by the 
President pro tempore, to join a committee appointed by the 
House of Representatives, to attend memorial services for Hon. 
William W. Wedemeyer, late a Representative from the State of 
Michigan, to be held at Ann Arbor, Mich., on January 26, 1913, at 
2 o'clock p. m. 

The President pro tempore appointed as the committee 
on the part of the Senate under the resolution Mr. Town- 
send, Mr. Smith of Michigan, Mr. Jones, Mr. Kenyon, Mr. 
Ashurst, and Mr. Pomerene. 

Tuesday, January 28, 1913. 
Mr. TowNSEND. I desire to give notice that on Saturday, 
February 22, I shall ask the Senate to consider resolutions 
commemorative of the life and public services of Hon. 
William W. Wedemeyer, late a representative from the 
State of Michigan. 

Monday, February 17, 1913. 
A message from the House of Representatives, by J. C. 
South, its Chief Clerk, transmitted to the Senate resolu- 
tions of the House on the life and public services of Hon. 
William W. Wedemeyer, late a Representative from the 
State of Michigan. 

[75] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

Saturday, February 22, 1913. 
The Senate met at 11 o'clock a. m. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, D. D., offered 
the following prayer: 

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee 
for the Providence which brings us to this day of holy and 
patriotic memory. In the light of the great example of 
him whom Thou wast pleased to make the Father of our 
Country, we here, with grateful and adoring hearts, con- 
secrate ourselves anew to the service of this Thy people. 
Receive our offering, we pray Thee, and grant that by Thy 
grace this may be that happy Nation whose God is the 
Lord. 

O God, who dost commit unto us the swift and solemn 
charge of life, we thank Thee for the life, the character, 
and the public service of him whom our lips shall this 
day name. We can not forget him who labored by our 
side, who shared our counsels, and who brake with us 
the bread of life. We honor ourselves, our Father, in 
honoring him who honored Thee. Despite our loneliness, 
we are the richer because such have lived. Though his 
body is buried in peace, his name liveth, and his memory 
is henceforth safely enshrined in our hearts. 

We pray Thee, our heavenly Father, to comfort those 
to whom this sorrow is most bitter and to whom this loss 
is most sore. Grant, we humbly pray Thee, that their 
hearts may evermore be in unbroken communion with 
his emancipated spirit. Quiet their restless and yearning 
hearts, until the day of the fuller life shall break and the 
shadows of our earthly sorrows shall flee away. 

In the name of Him who abohshed death and brought 
immortality to life, hear Thou our prayer. Amen. 



[76] 



Proceedings in the Senate 



The Secretary proceeded to read the Journal of yester- 
day's proceedings, when, on request of Mr. Smoot and by 
unanimous consent, the further reading was dispensed 
with and the Journal was approved. 

Mr. TowNSEND. Mr. President, I ask the Chair to lay be- 
fore the Senate resolutions from the House of Representa- 
tives on the death of the late Representative Wedemeyer. 

The Presiding Officer (Mr. Page in the chair). The 
Chair lays before the Senate resolutions from the House 
of Representatives, which will be read. 

The Secretary read the resolutions, as follows: 

In the House of Representatives, 

February 16. 1913. 

Resolved, That tlie business of the House be now suspended 
that opportunity may be given for tributes to the memory of 
Hon. William W. Wedemeyer, late a Member of this House from 
the State of Michigan. 

Resolved, That as a particular mark of respect to the memory 
of the deceased and in recognition of his distinguished public 
career the House, at the conclusion of the memorial exercises of 
the day, shall stand adjourned. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate. 

Resolved, That the Clerk send a copy of these resolutions to 
the family of the deceased. 

Mr. Townsend. Mr. President, I offer the resolutions 
which I send to the desk. 

The Presiding Officer. The Senator from Michigan of- 
fers resolutions, which will be read. 

The resolutions (S. Res. 474) were read, considered by 
unanimous consent, and unanimously agreed to, as fol- 
lows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard 'with deep sorrow of the 
death of the Hon. William W. Wedemeyer, late a Member of the 
House of Representatives from the State of Michigan. 



[77 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the de- 
ceased the business of the Senate be suspended in order that 
proper tribute may be paid to his high character and distin- 
guished public services. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of these 
resolutions to the House of Representatives and to the family of 
the deceased. 



[78] 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Address of Mr. Townsend, of Michigan 

Mr. President: I fear that the custom of memorializ- 
ing those who die wliile serving in Congress is coming 
to be more a perfunctory duty than a sad yet grateful 
opportunity, but in rising to speak at this time I am 
deeply impressed with the solemn privilege of expressing 
to my colleagues and to the friends of the late Congress- 
man William W. Wedemeyer my appreciation of his high 
character and splendid ability. I realize, however, how 
futile it is for the mind to attempt to frame and the lips 
to utter thoughts which would adequately convey the 
feelings, confused and inexpressible, which overwhelm 
those who have not yet recovered from the shock of Mr. 
Wedemeyer's tragic and most distressing death. 

Death is not a stranger. He has visited every home. 
He has knocked, or will knock, at every door, and neither 
love nor knowledge nor power nor any other thing can 
bar his entrance. He is no respecter of persons, and the 
wise and the foolish, the great and the small, the rich and 
the poor, the famous and the obscure he treats with 
merciless impartiality. All know this. Every thoughtful 
person understands that either to-day or to-morrow the 
grim reaper will call and strike him from the roll of the 
living, and yet he ever prays for a postponement until 
to-morrow and tries not to think that to-morrow will 
come; but it will come. 

As we grow older and get more tired we look upon 
death differently from what we did when we were 
younger. Then life meant much. The world was big 
and beautiful. Hope reigned supreme and death was the 

[79] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

end of joy and gladness. In after years, however, when 
we had come through experience to know that life was a 
struggle and that its tasks could not be completed in 
time, we sometimes had longings for rest, and gradually 
we came to find comfort in the Psalmist's words, " He 
giveth his beloved sleep." 

From the time the first intelligent man looked upon the 
vacant tenement of his companion until this hour, death 
has been regarded as a solemn mystery, and yet it is no 
more mysterious than is life. Who knows the origin of 
being? Who understands the relations between spirit 
and matter? Who can explain that strange phenomenon 
called thought? Every sentient being has a brain which 
the chemist can analyze, weigh, and measure, but who 
can discover its workings and find out how it paints pic- 
tures, builds houses, explores the stars, finds atoms, 
dreams dreams, loves, hates? Death itself is but an 
operation of life. Prior to so-called death we could see 
but could not understand the phenomena of life, because 
they were demonstrated through a body with which we 
were familiar, but death is only a name for that change 
from the finite to the realm of the infinite. Can we say 
that birth was the beginning of life, that it did not exist 
somehow, somewhere, before? Can we say that it does 
not exist somehow, somewhere, after the body dissolves? 
The million larvae in the pond live their lives and one by 
one they vacate their bodies and leave their native home, 
the water, and disappear. We know they have been 
translated into a new world of light and air, but their 
fellows can not know this; to them the departed are dead. 

This little span we call human life does not end with the 
dissolution of the body. It is brief when measured by 
earth revolutions, but it is eternity long in comprehension. 
Redwood trees now growing on the Pacific coast were 
there when Homer sang, when Socrates taught, when 

[80] 



Address of Mr. Townsend, of Michigan 

Alexander fought. They were centuries old on the first 
Christmas morning, and yet man in his infinitesimal day 
comprehends all that growth of trees which for 3,000 
years have been climbing skyward and resisting the 
shocks of centuries. Man can read the record of develop- 
ment from swelling seed to giant tree. In a day he com- 
prehends the experience of 30 centuries. 

We are told that some of the stars are so far away that 
if one had been blotted out at the dawn of history its light, 
traveling with such tremendous velocity, would still be 
streaming on us, sufficient time not having elapsed for the 
last ray to reach the earth, and yet in a moment man trav- 
erses that appalling space and sees the star that was, but 
is not He can pass through the eons of sun-building 
time and comprehend all from nebula to star. 

Can we measure man by years? He is greater than 
matter, older than time, coexistent with God. 
So runs my dream, but what am I? 

An infant crying in the night; 

An infant crying for the light. 
And with no language but a cry. 

Philosophy fails to relieve heartaches caused by death, 
but the departure of a good man with an untarnished 
record of honor and helpful usefulness does not leave the 
mourner so hopeless and miserable as does the going of 
one who has not contributed to the happiness and better- 
ment of the world, and as we gather on this sad memorial 
occasion memories of our departed friend excite only 
beautiful and loving thoughts, for William W. Wede- 
MEYER was a good and useful man. For a quarter of a 
century I knew him intimately and well. I met him first 
when he was a student in the University of Michigan. 
He was a poor boy and had to work his way through 
school. This was a blessed hardship, for it was the ex- 
perience which develops character and makes men. As 



11358°— 14- 



[81] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

a student he gave promise of the orator which he later 
became. Few men in Michigan were his equal in pre- 
senting a cause to the public, and none surpassed him. 
He possessed that necessary qualification of the true 
orator, sincere earnestness, and the later political history 
of his home county is the record of his triumphs. The 
cause he championed there seldom failed, and time has 
disclosed that he was, almost without exception, right. 
His friendly manner, his open honesty, his superior ability 
made him a natural leader in political thought and action, 
and coming from the people he understood them and be- 
came their advocate, and they loved and admired him. 
Few men in Michigan knew more people by name, and 
all familiarly called him " Wede." 

Soon after leaving the university he became a State 
character and every county committee of his party in the 
State besieged the State central committee for his services 
in every campaign. 

He was a Republican in politics and a progressive one. 
Gov. Pingree was the pioneer of modern political reform, 
and he selected Mr. Wedemeyer, then a very young man, 
as his aid in the ofTice of railroad commissioner. It was 
during the Pingree administration that Michigan changed 
her system of railroad taxation from the specific to the 
ad valorem plan, and Mr. Wedemeyer was one of the 
governor's most effective advocates of the change. 

He had little more than reached the constitutional age 
of 25 years when his home friends selected him as their 
candidate for Congress, and at the convention of 1896 he 
came within 1 vote of being nominated. In 1902 he was 
candidate for Congress again and received the unanimous 
and enthusiastic support of liis county. He was twice 
defeated for the nomination for Congress, but after each 
defeat he entered the campaign and supported his suc- 
cessful rival with great zeal and ability. He had a happy 

[82] 



Address of Mr. Townsend, of Michigan 

faculty for making and keeping friends, and when in 
1910 he entered the primaries he had enough admirers in 
all parts of the district to triumphantly nominate him 
over his strong and popular three-times opponent, the 
Hon. Henry C. Smith. At the November election follow- 
ing he was overwhelmingly elected, and he entered upon 
his congressional career backed by a proud constituency 
and possessed of high ideals for public service. 

In the 10 years I have been in Congress I have met and 
known nearly a thousand Members and Senators, and I 
am sure I never knew a man who worked harder and 
more conscientiously to perform his full duty than did 
Congressman Wedemeyer. No citizen of the second con- 
gressional district ever appealed to a deaf or careless ear 
when he wrote to Mr. Wedemeyer. He accomplished 
much while in the House, and even liis political oppo- 
nents recognized in him a growing legislator who would 
soon take a prominent place among the leaders of the 
American Congress. His was the genius of industry. 
Every day, every night, he was at work upon matters ap- 
pertaining to the duties of Congress, and those duties 
were exacting, frequently they were difficult, and often 
they were a great drain upon his nervous energy. He 
took life seriously. No duty came to Mm that he did not 
regard important, and somehow it seems to me now that 
he must have been impressed with the brevity of his time, 
for he could not consent to put anything off until to- 
morrow. He must do it at once. 

Big in body and mind, he impressed the casual ac- 
quaintance as being a great, strong, kindly boy. His 
spirits seemed high, and his genuine friendliness gave 
him a welcome everj'where. In whatever place he was 
he became an active, prominent figure. 

As a citizen he had no superior. As a statesman few 
men in Congress have had a more promising prospect 

[83] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

than was his. As a friend he was loyal to the core. The 
brightest spot in my nieniorj' of liim, however, will be 
his devoted love for his familj'. He never wearied of tell- 
ing me of his beautiful children. He carried their little 
letters to him about in his pocket, and however excited he 
might get in his conversation with me, he always closed 
with a joyful incident connected with the little ones. 
I recall that about the last time I saw him, and after he 
had dwelt to some extent upon his defeat for Congress 
last November, I told him that he ought not to feel badly, 
for with his energy and ability there were bigger and 
better things for him than a seat in Congress, and that he 
could be at home with his fainily more now. He bright- 
ened up and the old smile came back, and he exclaimed: 
"That's right. Don't think that I want to boast of my 
children, but they are nice youngsters, and I can see more 
of them hereafter. I'm all right, and have the finest 
family in the world." 

He had a sensitive soul, tuned to the higher, better 
things of life. He was instinctively honest, and unjust 
criticism cut him to the heart. He had the keen and quick 
perception and the attractive personality which made 
him a natural political leader, but his sensitive mind was 
easily injured, and the scars showed. With the ambitions 
of the politician was joined the sensitiveness of a child. 
He always fought in the open, and against the attacks of 
an honorable foe he was invincible. He knew how to 
parry the thrusts of the spear, but he was unskilled in 
avoiding the stabs of the stiletto. 

I still recall the real suffering which he endured when 
he was flippantly criticized by some newspaper reporter 
who understood that the mission of the newspaper is to 
ridicule rather than to strengthen. 

It is wicked to be false to a public trust, but it is more 
wicked to poison the public mind with suspicion about an 

[84] 



Address of Mr. Townsend, of Michigan 

honest Representative; and this is not so because of the 
evil effect upon society alone, but also because of the 
suffering and the weakness it brings to the faithful 
servant. 

At this time, as I look back over the last few years, I 
can see that a change was being wrought in Congressman 
Wedemeyer's mental condition. He lived under continu- 
ous excitement. Everything he did was done vigor- 
ously. His desire to be right always caused him to weigh 
all matters, great and small, with rigid exactness, and his 
fear of making a mistake bred doubts within his mind, 
and he who contracts the habit of doubting is lost. This 
is especially true of the legislator who is called upon to 
decide the many questions upon which honest and intelli- 
gent men differ. During the last year he was always 
fearful of making a mistake, and the destroyer Doubt was 
doing his work. I can see now that his nervous energy 
was being depleted and his overworked brain was show- 
ing strain. His defeat last November did not cause his 
death. It may have hastened it a few months, but eventu- 
ally the effects of a mind diseased would have been fatal. 

How much better for his friends and loved ones to re- 
member him as we knew him — strong, vigorous, and com- 
plete — than to remain familiar with the splendid body 
which once was his, but out of which he had gone. 

At about 7.30 on the evening of the 2d of January he 
stood on the deck of the steamship Panama and gazed 
out into the star-gemmed heavens. Who can say what 
thoughts passed through his mind? Who can tell what he 
saw and heard besides the stars and the music of the 
waves? Maybe he saw the light ineffable; maybe he 
heard the heavenly choir. We know that a moment later 
he cast into the sea the shell in which his cramped spirit 
had been confined and soared away to realms eternal. 

death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 

[85] 



Address of Mr. Jones, of Washington 

Mr. President: There is a lesson for each of us in the 
tragic death of William W. Wedemeyer. Earnest, hon- 
est, sincere, ambitious, and serving his people well and 
faithfully, he put forth his utmost endeavor in their be- 
half and in behalf of the right as he saw it. Anxious to 
please his people, he was, nevertheless, steadfast to his 
convictions of right and duty. His action in some in- 
stances was not in accord with the views of some of his 
constituents and thoughtless partisan criticism was 
launched at him and his motives impugned. This grieved 
liis sensitive nature. So honest and sincere himself, he 
could not understand why his motives should be ques- 
tioned by those who did not approve his conduct. He 
brooded over this injustice, and tliis doubtless snapped 
the delicate cord that held reason to its throne and led 
to his tragic death. If there is one lesson for me and 
you and all of us to learn, it is to look to the motive be- 
hind human action, and if that is good, honest, and pure, 
all honor is due the man for acting upon it, however much 
we may differ from him in judgment. Unjust, intemper- 
ate, partisan criticism brought pain, sorrow, ruin, and 
death to a man whose character was spotless, whose pur- 
poses were noble and ambitions high. Let us think be- 
fore we speak or write the word of censure lest we un- 
justly wound. That man who may search his own acts 
or words and find in them the arrow that pierced the 
honest brain of our friend will surely suffer the tortures 
of hopeless remorse. 

My first meeting with Mr. Wedemeyer was the out- 
growth of his friendly, sociable nature. I was stopping 

[86] 



Address of Mr. Jones, of Washington 



at his home city for a day or two when he came and in- 
troduced himself, and did what he could to make our 
stay a pleasant one. Our mutual interest in Alaskan 
affairs brought us into close contact here. He was a 
member of the Committee on Territories in the House, 
and we were both interested in securing local self- 
government for Alaska. I found him most earnest and 
active in behalf of this measure, and of everything else 
that was thought to be beneficial to our citizens in this far- 
away land. He could not have been more interested in 
a matter of vital benefit to his own people. He came to 
the Senate frequently and conferred with me after the 
bill passed the House, and I came greatly to admire his 
energy, earnestness, and good judgment. The people of 
Alaska owe much to this man who worked so faithfully 
for them and their interest without hope of reward save 
the approval of his own conscience. His action in this 
matter illustrated well his character and his idea of his 
duty as a legislator. He was, indeed, a servant of the 
people, not only of those of his own district, but of the 
whole Nation. All of liis time, all of his energy, and all 
of his great ability were given to promote their welfare. 
He was an ideal public servant. 

I have never forgotten the evening I spent with him at 
a meeting of the railroad employees of the Young Men's 
Christian Association at the Union Station about a year 
ago. He radiated good nature and wholesome good fel- 
lowship. A giant in stature, a boy in spirit, a man in 
wisdom and intellectual attainments, he impressed all 
with his good humor, his strong intellect, and his lofty 
manhood. He delivered an address that charmed, 
pleased, and elevated everyone. It was witty, humorous, 
pathetic, lofty, learned, and inspiring, and fully justified 
all of the encomiums that have been said of him as an 
orator. His native ability, his breadth of intellect, his 

[87] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

knowledge gained from books and travel, and his fund 
of apt and delightful stories, all displayed in a way that 
charmed and delighted his hearers, proved him to be a 
public speaker of rare attainment. Publicly and pri- 
vately he drew you to himself almost unconsciously and 
made you love him. 

It is often said to-day that a young man has no chance, 
no opportunity to make a name for himself, unless he has 
money or influence back of him. Let the young man who 
hears this read the life and achievements of our friend. 
He was born on a farm in Michigan in 1873. His parents 
were poor and he had no means. After working at what- 
ever his hands found to do, going to school in the winter, 
he entered the University of Michigan in 1890. He paid 
his way by working at whatever he could find to do and 
living frugally. 1 was told that he and a friend lived in a 
garret and did their own work and cooking. He gradu- 
ated with honor and distinction in 1894. He served in 
various positions of trust and confidence, and in 1910, at 
the age of 37 years, was elected to represent his congres- 
sional district in what is considered by many as the great- 
est legislative body in the world. 

This brief statement of his life struggles and accom- 
plishments is eloquent with encouragement to our youth. 
Without means and without influence, except that which 
always comes to honest toil and faithful endeavor and a 
steadfast purpose, he attained high distinction in a few 
short years. In his short life he proved that success and 
achievement do not depend upon birth or wealth, but 
largely on industry, thrift, and perseverance. He has left 
a rich heritage to his loved ones and friends and a bril- 
liant example to our boys, teaching them that the day of 
opportunity to honest, faithful work has not yet passed. 

My acquaintance with him, though brief, is a precious 
memory and an inspiration. In his death I have lost a 

[88] 



Address of Mr. Jones, of Washington 

friend, his family a loved husband and father, his country 
a splendid citizen, an earnest statesman, and a lofty 
patriot. 

He has gone, gone to the higher life beyond. For him 
the mystery of mysteries is solved. With us his life is a 
precious heritage beckoning to better things. That he 
still lives we must not doubt. A character so great and 
with such promise is surely not so soon ended. 

Said one among them : " Surely not in vain 
My substance of the common earth was ta'en; 

And to this figure molded, to be broke, 
Or trampled back to shapeless earth again." 



[89] 



Address of Mr. Ashurst, of Arizona 

Mr. President: The Senate of the United States has not 
paused in its vast labors and arrested its attention to the 
public business for the purpose merely of indulging in 
formal eulogistic remarks upon the character of this de- 
ceased Representative. Services of this nature are for the 
living as well as to honor the memory of the dead. They 
are for the dead, because the stricken can no longer speak 
for themselves, and it must depend that friends who re- 
main will see that justice is done to their memory. 

They are for the living, because they serve as a monitor 
to teach how transient, how fleeting, how evanescent are 
fame, power, riches, and glory. 

" Death," said one of the world's wisest men, " hath this 
also — it openeth the gate to good fame and extinguisheth 
envy." And that " to praise the dead is held proper, for 
only after a man is dead will the score of destiny be made 
even, as in life man is sometimes criticized, therefore in 
death man may be eulogized." It is not to be inferred 
that during life he whose memory we honor to-day was 
criticized, for 1 do not forget that he was quite generally 
praised, loved, and respected, and certainly no congres- 
sional district ever had a more faithful Representative 
than Mr. Wedemeyer. 

I became acquainted with Mr. Wedemeyer some nine 
years ago, while in attendance as a student in the Univer- 
sity of Michigan, and frequently spent a vagrant hour in 
his office discussing with him some mooted question of 
law. 

He was well equipped for a congressional career. He 
was a brilliant and powerful orator and possessed a vast 



[90] 



Address of Mr. Ashurst, of Arizona 

fund of rich and wholesome humor. He dealt with facts 
and figures in a charming manner, and could almost 
arouse an audience to enthusiasm even in discussing an 
auditor's prosaic report. When I first met him he was in 
the flush, strength, and pride of young manhood, and he 
incarnated the poet's lines — 

How beautiful is youth! How bright it gleams, 

With its illusions, aspirations, dreamsl 

Book of Beginnings, story without end, 

Each maid a heroine and each man a friend 1 

Aladdin's Lamp, and Fortunatus' Purse, 

That holds the treasures of the universe 1 

All possibilities are in its hands; 

No danger daunts it and no foe withstands; 

In its sublime audacity of faith, 

"Be thou removed," it to the mountain saith. 

And with ambitious feet secure and proud. 

Ascends the ladder leaning on the cloud. 

The news of his tragic death was especially shocking 
to all who knew him, for none suspected that his health 
had been impaired to the serious extent that was disclosed 
by information which subsequently came to light. 

This public servant literally worked himself to death 
in honorable labor in behalf of his constituents. 

He represented a proud constituency, a district long and 
ably represented by the present distinguished junior Sen- 
ator from Michigan [Mr. Townsend], and in Mr. Wede- 
meyer's ardent desire to measure fully up to the liigh 
standard of excellence set by his predecessor he did that 
which many new Members of Congress do when they be- 
come impatient with the periphrasis, circumlocution, pro- 
lixity, and delay which characterizes proceedings in Con- 
gress and the various departments of government — al- 
lowed himself no holiday, no moment of relaxation, no 
respite from work. This intense application to duty, with 
no playful interludes, reduced his vitality to a low ebb, 

[91] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

while the heat, conflict, and tumult of the last election 
wore his strength away; and thus with his vitality reduced, 
with his nervous energj- exhausted, the silver cord did not 
snap and break, but unraveled and fell to pieces, and he 
entered into that wide penumbra which lies between the 
sunlight of reason and the baleful shadow of insanity — 
that wide penumbra, Mr. President, in which there walk 
at times more men than the world suspects, as — 

Great wits are sure to madness near allied, 
And thin partitions do their bounds divide. 

Hoping to regain his health and strength he sailed to 
Panama, but found no relief, for returning home, and 
while about 10 leagues out of the harbor of Colon, after 
sunset, pacing the deck of the steamer, he looked out 
upon the heaving billows, which the twilight of an early 
evening seemed to sow with orient pearl, looking down 
into the waters he saw reflected the quenchless stars and 
their shining trains, which had resumed for another night 
their eternal vigils of the sky; he saw mirrored within 
the waters the " floor of heaven thick inlaid with patines 
of bright gold." And our sick and weary friend, momen- 
tarily believing he saw a radiant place of refuge and of 
rest, where his heart would not be harassed, plunged him- 
self instead into the airless meadows of the mysterious 
deep. 

We know he suffered much, but let us believe his pangs 
are over; let us believe that the ocean's healing waters 
relieved his troubled brow, cooled his heated and acceler- 
ated pulse, and that " after life's fitful fever he sleeps 
well." 

It is not given to mortal eyes to gaze upon the invisible, 
or to know the inscrutable, and thus the most vital prob- 
lem of all, the problem of our own existence and our own 
death, is the one which is the most difficult for finite 



[92] 



Address of Mr. Ashurst, of Arizona 

minds to try to understand. Faith alone vouchsafes a 
reply, for in the innermost sanctuary of every soul faith 
gives the assurance that after we shall have crossed what 
we call the frontier of the dark kingdom we shall find 
death is not a wall, but a door to a larger and more useful 
life. One of the most helpful and hopeful sentiments to 
be found in all our literature is the stanza from Bryant's 
Ode to a Waterfowl: 

He who, from zone to zone. 

Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight. 
In the long way that I must tread alone, 

Will lead my steps aright. 



[93] 



Address of Mr. Kern, of Indiana 

Mr. President: My acquaintance with William W. 
Wedemeyer was comparatively short, but rather intimate 
than otherwise. During his term of service here we lived 
at the same hotel, and as he represented the district and 
resided in the city in which my alma mater, the Univer- 
sity of Michigan, is situate, we found many subjects which 
we could discuss with mutual interest. 

Of course, the marvelous growth and development of 
the great university, the personnel of the faculty, the 
mighty changes wrought by the lapse of years, and the 
great success attained by the alumni of that institution, 
scattered as they are throughout the Republic, were the 
subjects most frequently discussed, but on many occa- 
sions he sketched the story of his life and gave me 
glimpses of his hopes and aspirations. 

Mr. Wedemeyer took degrees in both the literary and 
law departments, and was deeply interested in everything 
pertaining to the university and always active in every 
movement looking to the advancement of its interests, 
and in return he received in a marked degree the appre- 
ciative confidence of the regents and the faculty. 

Less than a year ago it was my privilege to attend a 
large meeting of the Alumni Association of the Missis- 
sippi Valley, held at St. Louis. That meeting was at- 
tended by the president of the university, the deans of the 
several faculties, and a number of other gentlemen promi- 
nently identified with that institution. All these men 
manifested the greatest interest in Mr. Wedemeyer's 
career and expressed their highest appreciation of his 
services as Congressman and his loyalty at all times to his 

[94] 



Address of Mr. Kern, of Indiana 



alma mater. They were proud of his accompUshments, 
and pointed to his career as illustrating the possibilities 
which are within the grasp of all young Americans who, 
with such energy as he possessed and such earnestness as 
he manifested, avail themselves of the opportunities that 
are presented to them on every hand. 

William W. Wedemeyer was born on a farm not far 
from Ann Arbor. His parents were sturdy German 
people, who with many others of that nationality had set- 
tled in that county years before and had contributed 
largely to the development of that part of the country. 

There was not much in the monotonous life of a Ger- 
man farmer's boy to encourage him in his desire for edu- 
cation and his ambition to occupy a higher and better 
position in society than his parents with their limited op- 
portunities could hope to occupy; but the great educa- 
tional institutions in his immediate vicinity, and the 
presence of the thousands of young men from every part 
of the Union whom he saw thronging the streets every 
time he came to his county-seat city of Ann Arbor with 
his marketing from the farm, gave him inspiration for the 
effort to secure for himself the education he so much 
desired. 

Surely, the surroundings there were inspiring. Here in 
this county seat was the greatest university in the mighty 
West, attended annually by thousands of young men hail- 
ing not only from every State but every country in the 
civilized world. Here in the same town was the splendid 
high school in which so many sons of Michigan and adja- 
cent States had been prepared for admission to the uni- 
versity. Here, too, in the same county — only a few miles 
away at Ypsilanti — was the great normal school of the 
State, also attended by thousands of young men and 
women who were preparing themselves for the noble pro- 
fession of teaching. It is not strange that with these sur- 



[95] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 



roundings young Wedemeyer should have been fired with 
that laudable sort of ambition which took him from the 
farm and led him into a field where he might prepare for 
a life of greater usefulness and lay broad and deep the 
foundations for that career in which in so short a time he 
achieved distinction. 

But it is not my purpose to speak of the achievements 
of his public life nor of his many victories over adverse 
circumstances as he struggled on from year to year to the 
attainment of the success which finally crowned his 
efforts, but rather of his devotion to wife and children — 
of the discharge of his obligations as a husband and 
father. 

During his term of service here I saw him every day in 
the company of his charming wife and three little chil- 
dren — one sturdy boy and two beautiful daughters. I 
could not fail to observe the affectionate interest with 
which he regarded them and the tender solicitude he 
always manifested concerning their welfare and hap- 
piness. 

Everyone who knew of his devotion to this delightful 
little family and of the great love he bore them will sym- 
pathize deeply with them in this great calamity which 
has deprived them of that wealth of affection which he 
bestowed upon them, and of his aid, counsel, and support 
through that period of dependence and helplessness in 
which children most need a father's loving care. 

While their loss is irreparable, their future lives will be 
blessed by the memories they will have of the sweet com- 
panionship of a father who has left to them the priceless 
heritage of a blameless life and an example of courage 
and energy which, followed by them, will carry them 
safely over every obstacle and enable them to achieve the 
same success which crowned his career. 



[96] 



Address of Mr. Smith, of Michigan 

Mr. President: To epitomize the life and character of 
one who had become very dear is indeed a difficult task 
when his death, so tragic and unexpected, has left such a 
void. But the eloquent words of the Senators who have 
preceded me and the brilliant, just, generous, and fitting 
tribute of my honored colleague make my task a very 
simple one. 

Mr. Wedemeyer had been my warm personal friend 
from his young manhood. 1 had been associated with 
him under circumstances so delightful and had learned to 
love him so much that his loss came with telling effect 
upon me. 

When the ambition of his life had been realized and 
he was accorded a place in the House of Representatives, 
all his friends throughout our Commonwealth looked 
forward with confident expectation to a career of unusual 
brilliancy, honor, and achievement. Brief though that 
career was, there have been few men in public service 
who have left a stronger impression upon their associates 
or accomplished more in real constructive legislation than 
the man whose memory we honor to-day. 

He was young in years; he was strong and vigorous in 
mind and body, possessing those rare qualities that at- 
tracted and held him in close communion with his friends. 
The congressional district that he represented was greatly 
honored by his service, while his personal friends could 
be numbered by thousands in every walk of life, a rare 
tribute to his magnetic genius and his attractiveness as a 
man. 

His colleagues from Michigan looked forward with 
confidence to a continuance of his public service in this 

11358"— 14 7 [97] . 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Wedemeyer 

Capitol. His defeat was not personal and cast no stigma 
upon him. In the recent election he ran far ahead of the 
candidates upon his ticket, and, indeed, his candidacy 
greatlj' strengthened the party to which he belonged. 

He was a man of unusual talent, and had the rare 
faculty of seeing clearly and distinctly the path of highest 
duty, and when convinced of his course nothing could 
influence or dissuade him to turn aside or falter in its 
performance. 

Something has been said about his interest in Alaskan 
affairs. I know full well how deeply he was concerned in 
all the legislation intended to relieve those sturdy people 
in that distant Territory. Often he has come to me in 
this Chamber and urged that those people might have the 
right of self-government, and we worked together in the 
accomplishment of that result. When the bill was passed 
his happiness was unrestrained. 

He was deeply interested in the Territorial bill before 
he entered Congress, and as I see my honored friend from 
Arizona [Mr. Ashurst] across the aisle I am again re- 
minded of that contest in which our beloved friend was 
deeply concerned. 

Mr. President, our friend has gone. We are over- 
whelmed by the catastrophe which ended a life of such 
singular usefulness. 1 do not pretend to comprehend it. 
I know that he had much to live for. He was rarely 
blessed in his home circle and devoted to liis wife and 
children. His companions in life sympathized in his 
every aspiration. He had climbed the ladder from hum- 
ble beginning without aid and had made for himself an 
enviable place in his Commonwealth and in his country. 

His death cast a gloom over our entire State. Its dark- 
ness refuses to be dispelled. We hope it is for the best, 
but many of us can not understand why such a tragedy 
should have befallen our friend in the very vigor of his 



[98] 



Address of Mr. Smith, of Michigan 



young manhood and at the time of his greatest usefulness 
to the State. 

After the Battle of Lodi it is said that the soldiers of 
Napoleon noticed that his eyes were closed and that, 
overcome with the exactions and the labors of the day, 
he had fallen asleep upon the field. Those nearest to him 
formed a hollow square about him and stood with patient 
vigil until rest opened his tired eyes. In this awful 
calamity those who knew and loved our friend, inspired 
by his memory, have formed a hollow square about his 
loved ones and will guard with earnest vigil the fatherless 
little children and the stricken widow in her woe. 

I love to think of Wedemeyer; of his happy, cheerful, 
beautiful aifection for his friends; of his loyalty and love 
for those who were dependent upon him; of the charm 
and grace of his manner; and the purity of his private 
and public life. 

Mr. President. 1 offer the resolution which I send to the 
desk. 

The Presiding Officer. The resolution will be read: 

The Secretary read the resolution (S. Res. 475), as 
follows : 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of 
Mr. Rayner, Mr. Utter, and Mr. Wedemeyer the Senate do now 
adjourn. 

The resolution was unanimously agreed to; and (at 4 
o'clock and 20 minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned until 
Monday, February 24, 1913, at 10 o'clock a. m. 



[99] 



